Former President Goodluck Jonathan has raised concerns over Nigeria’s growing dependence on the courts to resolve electoral disputes, warning that prolonged post-election litigation is weakening the country’s democratic process.
Jonathan spoke on Tuesday, August 11, at the 2026 Democracy Dialogue organised by his Foundation in Bauchi, where he compared Nigeria’s electoral dispute system with those of other African democracies.
According to the former president, the extent to which Nigerian politicians challenge election outcomes in court is unusual and has increasingly become part of the country’s electoral culture.
“The Nigerian situation is extremely different from most other African countries,” he said.
“The kind of election litigation we experience here is uncommon. I can describe the Nigerian situation as a very anomalous one.”
Jonathan recalled a conversation he had with a former Deputy President of South Africa while he was vice president, saying she was surprised that politicians in Nigeria routinely approached the courts after losing elections.
“She asked me, ‘Jonathan, why would somebody go to court after losing an election?’” he said.
“In South Africa, people do not normally go to court after losing an election. In Nigeria, election litigation has become so common that it is often factored into the election process.”
He said the judiciary remained an important pillar of democracy and must operate independently, impartially and strictly within the law.
However, Jonathan said declining public confidence in some political judgments had become a concern, particularly where electoral disputes appeared to have been politicised or prolonged unnecessarily.
READ ALSO: 2027: PDP Will Win With Jonathan On The Ballot — Reps Minority Leader, Agbedi
He maintained that criminal offences committed during elections should be investigated and prosecuted, but argued that not every electoral dispute should become a lengthy legal battle.
“In some highly controversial cases, it is better for the election to go back to the people,” he said.
Jonathan also expressed concern over what he described as growing judicial intervention in the internal affairs of political parties, especially disputes arising from party primaries.
“Courts now determine who becomes a party’s candidate and, in some cases, which political party should be recognised,” Jonathan said.
“That is creating serious uncertainty in Nigeria’s political environment.”
The former president argued that political parties should retain the primary responsibility for selecting their candidates, warning that excessive judicial involvement could upset the balance between Nigeria’s democratic institutions.
Jonathan said democracy should be viewed as an ecosystem in which political parties, electoral bodies, security agencies, the judiciary, civil society organisations, the media, election observers and voters all have distinct but interconnected responsibilities.
He stressed that strengthening Nigeria’s democracy would require reducing the number of electoral disputes that end up in court while rebuilding public confidence in both the electoral process and judicial decisions.
For Jonathan, elections should ultimately be about the ability of voters to determine who governs them, rather than allowing prolonged legal battles to become a routine second stage of the electoral process.