Former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN, has proposed the establishment of a judicial ombudsman and a professionally conducted survey of court users as part of efforts to evaluate the performance of the Lagos justice system.
Fashola made the proposal at the 2026/2027 Lagos State Judiciary New Legal Year Summit held in Lekki.
The summit was themed, “Justice as an Economic Infrastructure: Strengthening the Judiciary for Africa’s Fifth Largest Economy.”
According to Fashola, discussions about justice-sector reform should extend beyond legal doctrine and courtroom procedure to the actual experience of citizens and businesses using the courts.
He suggested that Lagos should establish reliable data on questions including how long cases take from filing to conclusion, how effectively commercial disputes are resolved and whether successful litigants are ultimately able to enforce judgments.
The proposed judicial ombudsman would provide an institutional channel through which court users could complain about their experiences within the justice system.
Fashola also linked court efficiency directly to economic activity, particularly disputes involving land, property and small and medium-sized businesses.
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, whose message was delivered at the event, similarly described an independent and efficient judiciary as important to economic development. She pointed to reforms including electronic filing and the National Case Management System.
The proposal is particularly noteworthy because judicial performance in Nigeria has traditionally been measured substantially through numbers of cases filed or disposed of.
A systematic court-user survey could introduce another metric: whether litigants, lawyers, businesses and ordinary citizens believe they are receiving timely and effective justice.
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Source: Punch Newspapers
