Over 146 million Nigerians, representing 70 percent of the 206 million population, don’t have trust in the country’s judiciary, according to a new report.
“71% of Nigerians lack trust in the judiciary, 65.2% lack trust in the government institutions established to tackle corruption, and 40% do not believe elections are free and fair,” the report said.
This was revealed in a report titled, ‘The State of Freedom in Nigeria Report,’ and released by Anvarie Tech and ResearcherNG and Bincika Insights.
The report was funded by the Washington DC-based National Endowment for Democracy.
Ms Farida Adamu, a Senior Programme Manager, Anvarie Tech, said it assessed citizens’ views on Freedom of Expression, Political Participation, Rule of Law and Corruption between November 15 and December 10, 2021.
The report, she said, was based on a study of 1,861 people across the six geopolitical regions in the country through simple random sampling standardized globally.
On Freedom of Expression, “50.4% of respondents agree that citizens are free to criticize the government without fear, while 49.6% disagree with this statement.
“Majority of respondents, 69.3%, agree that Nigerian citizens are free to organize political groups, while about 30.7% of respondents disagree.”
It also revealed that citizens’ perception of the ability of the media to report critically about government institutions and officials without fear indicates that 51.4 percent of respondents agree that the media can report critically about government institutions and officials without fear, while 48.6 percent of respondents disagree.
