Former President Goodluck Jonathan has raised concerns over Nigeria’s growing culture of post-election litigation, warning that the increasing role of the courts in determining political outcomes is weakening the country’s democratic process.
Jonathan spoke on Tuesday at the 2026 Democracy Dialogue organised by his Foundation in Bauchi, where he described Nigeria’s electoral dispute system as unusual compared with other African democracies.
According to the former president, elections in many African countries are largely settled through the ballot, while Nigeria has increasingly become known for prolonged legal battles after elections.
“The Nigerian situation is extremely different from most other African countries,” Jonathan said, describing the level of election litigation in the country as “very anomalous.”
He recalled a conversation with a former Deputy President of South Africa during his tenure as vice president, saying she expressed surprise that Nigerian politicians routinely went to court after losing elections.
Jonathan said election litigation had become so common in Nigeria that politicians now factor court battles into their electoral calculations.
While stressing that the judiciary must remain independent, impartial and committed to the law, he said public confidence in some political judgments had declined.
The former president also expressed concern over what he described as excessive judicial involvement in the internal affairs of political parties, particularly disputes arising from party primaries.
“Courts now determine who becomes a party’s candidate and, in some cases, which political party should be recognised,” he said, warning that such developments were creating uncertainty in the country’s political environment.
Jonathan maintained that political parties should retain the primary responsibility for selecting their candidates, arguing that excessive judicial intervention could distort the balance of the democratic system.
He also called for greater restraint in electoral litigation, noting that while criminal offences committed during elections should be prosecuted, some electoral disputes had become unnecessarily politicised and over-litigated.
“In some highly controversial cases, it is better for the election to go back to the people,” he said.
Jonathan emphasised that democracy operates as an ecosystem involving political parties, electoral bodies, security agencies, the judiciary, civil society organisations, the media, election observers and voters.
He concluded that Nigeria’s democracy would be strengthened if electoral disputes were reduced and public confidence restored in both the electoral process and judicial decisions.
