The President of the Enugu State Customary Court of Appeal, Justice George Nnamani, has decried the alarming trend of the “judicialisation of elections” in West Africa, warning that it strips citizens of their fundamental democratic agency.
Nnamani stated this on Thursday while delivering the keynote address at the fourth edition of the Civil Society Week for West Africa (CSWWA 2026), themed “Strengthening Judicial Protection of Civic Space in West Africa,” hosted by Spaces for Change in Enugu State.
He lamented that courts were gradually replacing electoral management bodies as the ultimate arbiters of electoral outcomes, party registrations and candidate eligibility.
“When judicial decisions dictate who can contest and who is excluded, citizens are effectively stripped of their fundamental agency to choose their leaders, severely compromising the freedom of association and assembly,” he said.
The keynote speaker also warned that executive overreach was increasingly being shielded by judicial endorsement, noting that “repression effectively puts on the robes of the law.”
Addressing the theme, Nnamani stressed that financial autonomy remained the “crankshaft of the rule of law”, needed to protect the judiciary from external pressures.
He praised the Enugu State Government for implementing judicial autonomy but condemned states where judges were forced to beg for funds, a situation he said weakened the judiciary.
Earlier, in her welcome address, the Executive Director of Spaces for Change (S4C) West Africa, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, raised the alarm over the systematic weaponisation of judicial processes across the sub-region.
Citing the organisation’s recent report, Civic Space in West Africa: Trends, Threats & Futures (2nd Edition), Ibezim-Ohaeri disclosed a 700 per cent increase in judicially backed human rights violations.
“Our findings indicate that judicially backed violations of human rights surged from just nine cases over six years to 70 cases within less than three years—representing an alarming increase of nearly 700 per cent,” she said.
She noted that legal mechanisms were increasingly being deployed to hamper public movements, delegitimise opposition actors and justify state-led crackdowns.
The S4C executive director also pointed to the alleged weaponisation of anti-terrorism laws, citing Nigeria’s 775 terrorism-related convictions in 2025, alongside similarly high figures in Mali and Burkina Faso. She warned that human rights must never be sacrificed on the altar of state expediency.
Furthermore, Ibezim-Ohaeri condemned the rise in strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), describing them as baseless legal actions designed to intimidate, exhaust and silence journalists, whistleblowers and grassroots movements.
She urged participants, including judges and civil society leaders from about 20 countries, to develop practical strategies to strengthen judicial independence and resist judicially enabled repression.
“Democracy cannot survive without an independent judiciary that courageously defends constitutional rights and freedoms and ensures every voice is heard,” she added.