How Political Games Are Hurting Nigeria's Future

Nigeria's democracy is fading away. It is happening slowly, almost unnoticed. Our democracy is weakening one silly lawsuit at a time. Democracies do not collapse suddenly. It starts with obstacles to enforcing the laws. It begins when politicians and their lawyers flood the courts with baseless claims, showing disrespect for the court and its laws.

Every hour a Nigerian judge spends on a political distraction is an hour taken from someone who truly needs justice. This is not just wasting time. This is stealing justice from those waiting for it. It is stolen from the widow hoping for justice. From the business owner stuck in a commercial fight. From the investor who needs legal safety before putting in money. From the citizen who believes the court is the last place for fairness.

Last year, a report by the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) said that 90% of Nigerians faced at least one legal issue in four years. These cases, according to the report, remain unresolved and deeply affect people's health, finances, and family lives. Think about it. Imagine waiting five years for your land case because another politician filed his twentieth pre-election lawsuit or post-election petition.

The report tells us that our justice system is failing Nigerians. Yet, politicians waste the court's time. They waste our country's time. They waste our future.

For too long, politicians have treated lawsuits like part of their campaigns. Don’t want competition? Go to court. Lose in the election? Go to court. Lose in court? File another lawsuit. Lose again? Appeal. Look for another technicality. Find another courtroom. Get another headline.

The courtroom turns into a campaign office under a different name.

The outcome is predictable. Court dockets fill up. Real disputes wait longer. Businesses delay decisions. Citizens lose faith. Judges spend important hours dealing with cases that should not even be there. Then we blame the judges. We say the court is too slow. But when the courtroom turns into a campaign office, what can judges do?

Every misuse of the system steals attention from the court. Every misuse of the court steals trust in democracy.

There are Nigerians who are not involved in politics. A small business owner whose customer broke a contract. A family fighting over inherited land. A young entrepreneur waiting for a court to settle ownership of ideas before an investor will hand over the money. For them, every delay is not a headline; it is an unpaid mortgage, a child kept out of school, a stalled business. When courts get crowded, justice doesn’t just slow down. It becomes more expensive. Hope becomes weaker, and we cannot talk about a “RENEWED HOPE” when it is really a backward step. In a country where legal issues often drag on for years and millions of citizens report unresolved legal problems affecting their lives, every unnecessary political lawsuit quietly takes time from someone just trying to live.

As a nation, we rarely see judicial time as a vital resource. Public money spent on each case, court schedules used, judges’ time wasted, someone else’s hearing postponed, someone else’s justice delayed are resources thrown away.

Countries build wealth not only with roads, ports, and power stations. They also build it with systems that settle disputes quickly, reliably, and fairly.

The World Bank has long recognized that fast contract enforcement and legal certainty are key to attracting investors. Investors can accept some business risks. What they cannot accept is legal uncertainty.

That is why every wasted day in court has an economic cost that seldom shows up in any government budget.

Nowhere is that cost clearer than in the legal issues coming from Nigeria’s digital economy.

While politicians fill court dockets with silly lawsuits, another case quietly came to the courts.

This one was not about who will sit in Aso Rock. It was about who governs Nigeria’s digital future.

The dispute between the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, was framed as a disagreement over a ₦30 billion claim for allegedly unapproved ads.

But that was not the main issue in court.

The bigger question was whether Nigeria has the legal right to regulate foreign digital platforms profiting from Nigerian consumers but operating beyond traditional boundaries.

Can Nigeria make global tech companies follow local advertising rules?

How far does Nigeria's regulatory power reach into cyberspace?

What responsibilities do global platforms have towards Nigerian consumers?

These are not just abstract legal matters.

They are vital questions for nation-building.

Every major economy is facing these issues. The European Union has tackled some through important laws and court rulings. India is working on its own legal principles. Brazil has increasingly relied on its courts to clarify the responsibilities of global tech companies.

Nigeria should be part of that global discussion.

Instead, the ARCON case was dropped before the courts could set important precedents.

Maybe a settlement was best for the parties involved.

But the nation missed something bigger.

It lost the chance to define its digital sovereignty.

Precedent is one of the judiciary’s greatest gifts to economic growth. A well-thought-out judgment does more than resolve a dispute. It shows regulators the limits of their legal power. It tells businesses what standards they must follow. It informs investors where certainty exists. It tells citizens what protections they can expect in a digital marketplace.

That is how institutions grow.

That is how markets expand.

That is how trust builds.

Imagine if our courts focused more on defining Nigeria’s stance on artificial intelligence, digital advertising, data governance, consumer protection, and platform accountability rather than clearing political cases that should not have been filed.

Imagine the trust that would create.

Imagine the investment that would follow.

Imagine the institutions that would rise.

Instead, too often, tomorrow's economy waits while yesterday's politics crowd the courtroom.

This is the real cost of unnecessary lawsuits.

It is not just a waste of filing fees.

It is not just an abuse of the court system.

It is stealing time from people whose cases could create jobs, protect rights, punish wrongdoing, or shape the legal framework of a modern economy.

The solution starts with courage. Judges should keep imposing real costs on those who misuse the court. The current penalties are not enough. The Nigerian Bar Association must raise the professional standards of lawyers. Political parties must stop using the courts as part of their campaign tools.

Most importantly, politicians must remember a democratic value that is becoming rare.

The biggest victim of political vanity isn’t the politician who loses. It’s the citizen who never gets a chance to be heard.