The founder of Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has urged Nigerian lawyers and judges to emulate the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi in order to restore integrity and public trust in the country’s justice system.
Bakare made the call while delivering the keynote speech at the 22nd Chief Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture, themed “Integrity Deficiency in the Justice Sector: Whither the Legal Profession?”
The event was organised by the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, and held in Lagos on Thursday.
The pastor, who once worked as a lawyer under Fawehinmi, warned that the judiciary is facing a deep crisis of corruption and ethical decay, with political influence, bribery, and selective justice undermining its role as a pillar of democracy.
In his speech text made available to PUNCH Online, Bakare cited a report by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) Nigeria Corruption Index, revealing that between 2018 and 2020, about N3.7 billion was reportedly offered to judges as bribes.
According to him, lawyers and court staff accounted for over 70 percent of falsified court documents.
Bakare said, “In the said report, the justice sector emerged as having the highest incidence of corruption. This underscores the systemic erosion of ethical and professional norms in the justice sector.
“The verdict is that a frightening proportion of Nigerian lawyers no longer have enough confidence in their skills to cross swords and successfully argue cases before judges, while some judges now see the bench as their ‘work-chop,’ that is, where they work is where they ‘chop.’
“The judiciary has become a marketplace where justice is for sale to the highest bidder.”
He also noted that 34 of 62 lawyers nominated for judicial appointments failed integrity tests, raising concerns about the quality of those ascending to the bench.
He urged members of the bar and bench to reclaim the moral authority and professional values exemplified by the late Fawehinmi.
Recalling his experience with Fawehinmi, Bakare highlighted the legal icon’s values of punctuality, diligence, courage, and sense of responsibility.
“Diligence was another value that defined the career of Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Years before I qualified as a lawyer, while I was still a student of law at the University of Lagos, I started working part-time on weekends as a Research Assistant at Gani Fawehinmi’s Chambers and had the privilege of working with him on the Nigerian Constitutional Law Reports.
“From that time to my attachment to his office during my year in the Nigerian Law School and to my days of working with him as a qualified lawyer, Chief Gani proved to be a hardworking lawyer who researched his cases with utmost diligence and demanded the same depth of rigour from his team.
“Diligence and integrity are inseparable. Lawyers who resort to cutting corners are those who lack the diligence required to get to the bottom of cases and prepare foolproof arguments that no adversary can withstand or gainsay,” the cleric added.
He further noted that Fawehinmi “Went the extra mile in defending the law, confronting oppressors, and serving the people, including pro bono clients.”
Bakare described these values as essential for reversing the integrity deficit in Nigeria’s courts.
He stressed that restoring judicial integrity requires personal responsibility, ethical legal practice, and character-building for future lawyers, beginning with family and legal education.
He also called for structural reforms, including financial independence for the judiciary, proper housing and logistics for judges, and annual data-driven evaluations of judicial conduct in collaboration with the NBA and the National Judicial Council.
He linked the integrity crisis to broader national challenges, including ethno-religious tensions, terrorism, and security failures, citing the U.S. designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over attacks on Christians as a warning of governance and institutional weaknesses.
“The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi showed us that winning by righteousness is possible.
“It is time for the bar and the bench to emulate his values and restore the judiciary to its rightful place as the last resort of the oppressed and the protector of the innocent,” Bakare said.
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