Judicial Review Is Not a Threat to the Legislature – It Is It's Guardian
By Dr. Anne Uruegi Agi
The recent statement by the Coalition of Concerned Women for Legislative Integrity (CCWLI), [
Statement]
condemning the Federal High Court judgment in favour of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, reveals a troubling misunderstanding of the constitutional role of the judiciary. To describe the court's ruling as a "threat to parliamentary discipline" is to conflate constitutional checks and balances with institutional sabotage.
The judgment by Hon. Justice Binta Nyako found the Senate's six-month suspension of Senator Natasha to be excessive and constitutionally unsound. The court emphasized that legislative powers, while significant, are not absolute. They must be exercised within the framework of the Constitution and with respect for the rights of the electorate.
What CCWLI fails to appreciate is the time-honoured democratic principle of judicial review. Rooted in the landmark U.S. case of Marbury v. Madison (1803), judicial review empowers courts to assess the constitutionality of actions taken by the other arms of government. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is."
In the UK, the concept is alive and well despite parliamentary supremacy. In R (Miller) v. The Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Prime Minister acted unlawfully by advising the Queen to prorogue Parliament. That decision confirmed that no one, not even the highest officeholders, is above the law. The same principle applies in Nigeria. Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) empowers the judiciary to intervene when fundamental rights or democratic principles are under threat.
Therefore, judicial review is not an intrusion. It is a constitutional obligation. When a court finds that a suspension has silenced not just a Senator, but the will of her constituency, it must speak. That is not activism, it is adjudication.
The CCWLI’s stance is also curious in its framing. One might have expected a civil society group with a women-focused agenda to interrogate the circumstances that led to a woman senator being suspended for making public allegations of misconduct. Instead, the coalition appears more invested in defending institutional authority than in examining whether that authority was exercised lawfully and proportionately.
This is not about blind solidarity among women. It is about principle. Advocacy that claims to centre integrity must do so consistently, even when it involves questioning power structures. To adopt the language of discipline without addressing the possibility of procedural or constitutional abuse is not integrity, it is deference.
To suggest that the constituents of Kogi Central were not suspended because only their representative was punished is intellectually dishonest. Representation is the lifeblood of a democracy. When a representative is removed from duty for six months, the people lose their voice.
The judiciary did not abolish the Senate’s power to discipline its members. What it did was insist that such power must be exercised proportionately and within legal bounds. That is the role of the courts in any democracy, to check excesses, not enable them.
We must stop framing every judicial intervention as an affront to institutional independence. It is not. It is, in fact, the preservation of democratic integrity. In this case, Justice Nyako acted not as an opponent of the legislature but as a guardian of constitutional limits.
It is unfortunate that CCWLI, a coalition of women-focused CSOs, could not see that. Rather than decry judicial review, they should have welcomed it as proof that no Nigerian, not even a woman in power, is without recourse when abused by the system.
We should encourage appeals, yes. But more importantly, we should understand and respect the role of the judiciary. Judicial review is not the enemy of the legislature. It is its mirror: revealing when power strays from purpose.
Let us protect that mirror, not shatter it when it reflects uncomfortable truths.
