Abuja, March 26, 2025 | It’s just past 1:30 PM WAT, and the air in Nigeria’s legal circles feels heavy with a truth we can’t dodge. Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun stepped up Wednesday at the Body of Benchers Complex in Abuja, dropping a sobering warning: unethical conduct among Nigerian lawyers is spiking, and it’s dragging the profession into the mud. Speaking at the unveiling of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee’s latest report, per Daily Post Nigeria, she didn’t hold back calling out a “downturn in adherence to ethical principles” that’s not just slipping but facing a full-on crisis. For a Lagos girl like me, who grew up idolizing lawyers as justice’s torchbearers, this hits hard. Are we losing the plot?
Kekere-Ekun’s no stranger to tough talks. Since taking the CJN mantle as Nigeria’s second female top judge, she’s been a bulldog for integrity zero tolerance for corruption, she swore at her Senate screening last year. Now, she’s turning that fire on her own turf. “Strict adherence to ethical principles is dwindling,” she said, voice firm, eyes on a room of legal bigwigs. It’s not just talk the stats back her up. She’s pushing for lawyers to recommit to the basics: ethics, discipline, responsibility. The Body of Benchers, the profession’s apex crew, must lead this charge, she urged, because if the gatekeepers falter, what hope’s left? X buzz this morning, like a post at 10:15 WAT, agrees: “CJN’s right lawyers need to shape up or ship out.”
This isn’t abstract griping. Think about it court delays, dodgy ex-parte orders, lawyers hobnobbing with politicians over cases. Odinkalu and HURIWA’s plea for judges to ditch politics, reported by The Guardian Nigeria today, feels like a twin cry. Kekere-Ekun’s seen the rot 243,253 cases clogging superior courts as of Q1 2024, per her October NJC speech. She’s railed against frivolous injunctions and media grandstanding by senior advocates before. Now, she’s saying the bar’s complicity is bleeding trust dry. “When ethics falter, justice suffers,” she might as well have shouted. And she’s not wrong public faith’s at a low, with folks like my uncle Tunde muttering, “Lawyers and judges, same WhatsApp group with politicians.”
The CJN’s not just lamenting she’s mentoring. Her call’s a blueprint: recommit, rethink, rebuild. She tied it to a lecture by ex-Lagos Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN, themed “Half-A-Century of the Body of Benchers: The Past, The Present, and The Future of Maintaining the Ethics of the Legal Profession in Nigeria.” It’s a nod to history 50 years of standards and a shove toward tomorrow. She wants this annual gig to set benchmarks, not just spark chatter. X at 11:20 WAT lit up with “Fashola’s the man to drill this home,” but the real test is action. Can lawyers police themselves, or are we begging for a reckoning?
Let’s be real some say lawyers mirror society’s mess, not the other way around. Fair, but when you’re the “minister in the temple of justice,” as Kekere-Ekun loves to quote, the bar’s higher. She’s not asking for saints just pros who won’t trade oaths for cash or clout. Her October vow to sack underperforming judges shows she’s serious; now, the bar’s in her sights. For me, it’s a gut check lawyers shaped my view of right and wrong. If they’re bending rules, what’s left for us to lean on?
Here’s the Daily Mentor take: Kekere-Ekun’s sounding an alarm we can’t snooze. Lawyers, step up own your craft, ditch the shortcuts. Nigerians, demand it flood X, call out the rot. The CJN’s fighting for a profession worth believing in, but she can’t do it solo. Are we in, or are we out? Justice isn’t cheap time to pay up.