President Bola Tinubu has asked the National Assembly to repeal the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 and replace it with a new Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2026.
The request, contained in letters read separately at the Senate and House of Representatives, has been referred to the relevant committees for legislative action.
Why Tinubu wants ACJA 2015 replaced
According to the letters, Tinubu said the 2015 law, though a landmark reform in its time, has been hampered by legal, procedural and institutional challenges, including:
- Delays in criminal investigations and prosecutions
- Inadequate deployment of technology in court processes
- Weak coordination among justice institutions
- Inefficient case management systems
- Limited monitoring of compliance with the Act
The bill was reviewed by a team of law officers with expertise in criminal law and procedure, and incorporates recent judicial decisions and international best practices.
Key reforms in the new Criminal Justice Act 2026
The proposed law introduces several major changes to Nigeria’s criminal justice system:
- Abolishing the trial-within-trial procedure, a process often blamed for prolonging criminal cases
- A national Sex Offenders Register
- A Witness Support Fund
- Mandatory timelines for determining no-case submissions
- Wider use of written witness depositions to speed up trials
- Modern case management tools, including standardised plea forms
- Transitional provisions to prevent fresh trials when a judge dies, retires or is transferred
- Restructuring the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Council
The bill also seeks to restructure the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Council by creating a governing board with representatives from:
- The judiciary
- Law enforcement
- Prosecuting authorities
- Correctional institutions
- The Nigerian Bar Association
- Civil society
Under the proposal, the President would appoint an Executive Secretary for the Council on the Attorney-General’s recommendation, while the Attorney-General would be empowered to issue implementation regulations.
The backlog problem the bill aims to solve
The push follows longstanding complaints about Nigeria’s justice system, including a backlog of criminal cases, protracted corruption trials, and overcrowded correctional facilities holding large numbers of awaiting-trial inmates. The 2015 Act itself was introduced to address prolonged pre-trial detention and inconsistent criminal procedure across the country. Officials argue the new bill builds on that foundation as part of the administration’s wider justice sector reform agenda.
Will a new law fix Nigeria’s justice system?
Whether new legislation alone can fix implementation problems remains uncertain. A former Attorney General of Kogi State, Ben Ikani, has publicly backed the bill, noting the 2015 Act has been in force for 11 years, giving lawmakers time to identify gaps.
Broader stakeholder reaction, including from the judiciary and legal practitioners, has not been widely reported yet, since the bill is still before National Assembly committees. Nigeria’s courts continue to face infrastructure and staffing constraints, and observers have historically noted that even well-designed criminal justice laws depend heavily on funding, technology access and institutional discipline to work in practice.
What this means ahead of 2027
Ahead of 2027, the bill positions Tinubu’s administration as pushing judicial reform alongside other policy priorities. Whether it meaningfully reduces trial delays and prison congestion will likely depend less on the text of the law than on how consistently courts, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies implement it, a challenge that also confronted the 2015 Act it seeks to replace.
Legislative reform can set new standards and timelines, but public confidence in Nigeria’s justice system will ultimately rest on whether those standards are enforced on the ground, in courtrooms and detention facilities across the country, not just on paper.
