DIGNITY IN COURTS’ JUDGEMENT: A VERITABLE TOOL IN DEVELOPING A SUSTAINABLE LEGAL INSTITUTION IN NIGERIA, JUXTAPOSING THE OMOLUABI CONCEPT

Abstract

Dignity has been defined as ‘a way of appearing or behaving that suggests seriousness and self-control’; the quality of being worthy of honour or respect’. Dignity is a concept that is well known, well entrenched and permeates every stratum of African culture from settlement of disputes to interaction between people in terms of contract, marriage, learning a trade or vocation and occupying a top position in the society.
Dignity among the Yorubas of the Southwest of Nigeria is akin to the concept of ‘omoluabi’. This concept defines what a person is and what he or she would become in life in the eye of the society and how far his/her achievements can go. It is also co-terminous with the saying that ‘character open doors or closes it’, of course depending on which character the person exhibits, whether good or bad.
The concept is however, being fast eroded in the cultures the world over due to cultural change in terms of interaction with other cultures, corruption and socio-economic diversifications, and this has affected all strata of developments, whether positively or negatively.
In this paper, we applied this concept to judgments of courts in Nigeria in terms of the personality and character of the Judge, treatments of the judges, the inputs to and outputs of judgments, as well as the execution or enforcements of such judgments.