The Role of the Judiciary in Post COVID-19 Economic Recovery in Nigeria

Recent post covid-19 economic indices have indicated that Nigeria is facing serious fiscal problems with rising budget deficit, huge accumulated debt, shrinking revenue and poor investment outlook. In fact, according to the 2022 fiscal performance report for January through April, Nigeria’s total revenue stood at N1.65 trillion while debt servicing stood at N1.94 trillion, showing a variance of over N300 billion. Worse still, no effort of any of the three arms of government has been able to redeem the situation or position the country in a better economic status. Nigeria is a country that practices constitutional democracy with governmental powers being shared among the three arms of governments; legislature, executive and judiciary. Even though the traditional role of the judiciary is interpretation of laws and adjudication, the judiciary has a role to play in ensuring legal certainty to investments and decreases the risk inherent in economic activities in the country. It is however disheartening that over the years, the Nigerian judiciary has been inactive in ensuring financial reforms and driving economic development in Nigeria, this has led to a drastic reduction in the number of investors in the country and successive governments have been unable address the issue. It is against this background that this research addresses the role of the judiciary in ensuring investment stability and economic revival in Nigeria. The researchers will adopt the doctrinal legal research method wherein reliance will be placed on primary and secondary sources, It is the finding of this research that the Nigerian judiciary has not been proactive in ensuring and sustaining economic growth in the country due to delay in adjudicatory process, ineffective and unreliable dispute resolution mechanism, corruption and political interference in the affairs of the judiciary, among the several factors, hampering the efficiency of the judiciary in driving economic development in Nigeria. The research recommends an urgent reform and reawakening in the Nigerian judicial sector to salvage the sinking economic situation of the country and sustain investment stability.