CHAPTER ONE
1.0   INTRODUCTION
1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The Nigerian political history dated back to the pre-colonial era. The various  ethnic groups had one form or system of political and judicial set up that were distinct and peculiar to each ethnic group.
In the Northern part of Nigeria there was well established monarchical form of government, and its judicial system was based on the sharia which was strongly influenced by Islam. The Yoruba of the south west of Nigeria equally had a monarchical form of government (based on the cultural set up of the society) and the judicial system was based on the royal court of the “Obas”. The South East had a loose form of government based  on community headship of splinter groups without a central power as it was the case in the north and south west of the country, while the judicial system was the same “Communal market system of adjudication”.
The prominent judicial system in the North was the “Alkali courts” presided over by the Emirs or the Alkalis (judges) who were very versatile in sharia law. The South west had courts similar with those in the North which were based on the traditions, customs and practices of the area, these were called “kotu oba or kotu Asipa” depending on who was the presiding judge. The judiciary continued to build up its standard from this period up to when the country attained its independence in 1960. One can conveniently insinuate that the success of the judiciary today had been laid long time ago by founding fathers. It is always construed by parties on both sides as either the victory for the rule of law (in a win case) and perversion of justice (on the losing side) but all these is human frailties, thus this is an eye opener to the issues of administration of justice in Nigerian courts. Administration is like a diamond having many facets. The facet would concentrate upon or concern ourselves with in this essay is that one that relates to justice.
Nigeria is a very large country with very high percentage of citizens many of whom goes to court to ventilate their grievances at the slightest provocation, excuse or justification. But most of them are faced with ejection clause (s), where the jurisdiction of the court is not ousted, there might be difficulty of meeting the phenomenal cost of litigation, payment of court fees, summons fees, the payment for records of proceedings including cases going on appeal, the payment of lawyers’ fees and disobedience to court orders, all these pit falls identified call for changes which form the inspiration for writing this project.
The Nigerian judiciary has come under severe criticism and condemnation recently on account of the quality of its rulings. The popular perception is that the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, by its decisions, are detached and out of sync with the aspirations of the peoples and the requirements of national development.