Book Review: “The Selectorate: When Judges Topple the People” by Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu.
In “The Selectorate: When Judges Topple the People”, Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu delivers a searing critique of Nigeria’s evolving political reality, one where unelected judges now routinely decide the outcome of elections, rendering the will of voters subordinate to judicial fiat. With precision and urgency, Odinkalu names this dangerous transformation for what it is: judiciocracy, a system where judicial power supersedes democratic choice.
Published in May 2025 by Narrative Landscape Press, the book is a scholarly yet unflinching account of how Nigeria’s judiciary has morphed into a political force, not through constitutional mandate, but through courtroom overreach. Through detailed analysis of landmark cases and emerging trends in electoral litigation, Odinkalu argues that the Nigerian judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man, but the final arbiter of political power, a selectorate that decides who governs, regardless of who the people voted for.
The book tracks how courts have nullified popular mandates on the basis of obscure technicalities, often invoking procedural infractions to justify verdicts that defy both arithmetic and common sense. In this judiciocracy, it is not uncommon for a candidate who placed third in an election to emerge as winner by court declaration, fueling public suspicion that these rulings are less about law and more about political patronage and bribery.
Odinkalu exposes a system where “technicalities” serve as judicial camouflage, mechanisms used to rationalize outcomes allegedly negotiated in secrecy and sealed with incentives. Votes become meaningless when their power can be overridden by a few unelected individuals cloaked in judicial immunity. Far from strengthening democracy, the courts have become instruments for silencing it.
This creeping judicial authoritarianism, the book warns, is eroding Nigeria’s fragile democracy. By undermining electoral outcomes, the judiciary now stands accused not just of legal manipulation but of democratic subversion. Odinkalu asks: what happens to the legitimacy of government when leadership is determined not by ballot boxes, but by black robes?
And therein lies the book’s central contradiction, Nigeria parades itself as a democracy, yet practices the politics of a judiciocracy, where courtroom verdicts outweigh popular votes. With each questionable judgment, public confidence in both the judiciary and the electoral process sinks further, fostering resentment, apathy, and unrest.
Yet The Selectorate is not only a book of lament, it is also a call to reclaim democratic integrity. Odinkalu advocates for systemic judicial reforms: transparency in appointments, live-streaming of election petition hearings, mandatory full disclosures of judges’ reasoning, and an independent, citizen-facing mechanism to discipline erring judges. Unless these reforms are implemented, the book warns, Nigeria risks democratic collapse disguised as legal procedure.
The Selectorate is essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of democracy in Nigeria. Odinkalu combines legal rigour with political insight to expose a dangerous shift from electoral rule to judicial rule. It is a wake-up call to citizens, legal professionals, and political actors alike: if democracy must survive, the judiciary must return to being an impartial interpreter of law, not the ultimate selector of leaders.
In an age where the courts now elect and the people merely observe, The Selectorate compels us to ask a difficult question: is Nigeria still a democracy, or has it become a judiciocracy?
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