20 November 2025: Will The Judge Free Kanu Or Convict Nigeria?

 20 November 2025: Will The Judge Free Kanu Or Convict Nigeria?  On 20 November 2025, the entire world will look toward Court 7 of the Feder...

 20 November 2025: Will The Judge Free Kanu Or Convict Nigeria? 

On 20 November 2025, the entire world will look toward Court 7 of the Federal High Court, Abuja. On that day, the presiding judge in the trial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will deliver a ruling that will either strengthen Nigeria’s judicial legacy or drawn it for generations.

For many legal observers, jailing Nnamdi Kanu under the present conditions would not just be a mistake. It would be the biggest judicial blunder of the 21st century.

The case against Kanu rests solely on the Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act of 2013— a statute that legal experts insist was effectively overtaken by the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act of 2022. Under Section 36(12) of the Nigerian Constitution, no Nigerian can be convicted for an offence, unless that offence exists in a written law that is valid and in force at the time of prosecution. The implications are enormous: if the law being used has been replaced, then the very basis of the charge becomes void.

This is not a minor technical point. It is a constitutional foundation. And when constitutional foundations are ignored, justice collapses.

If the court proceeds to convict Kanu using a repealed or superseded legal framework, it will not only raise questions about the fairness of the trial, it will directly go further to challenge Nigeria’s credibility before the world. Such judgment would forever be cited as an example of how a justice system can undermine itself by refusing to follow the clear letter of its own constitution.

Beyond the legal dispute is the moral weight placed on the judge’s shoulders. His ruling will be more than a legal pronouncement; it will be a reflection of the judiciary’s conscience. A conviction in defiance of constitutional clarity would symbolically place the judiciary in the dock. It will make it appear as though the court is not interpreting the law, but obeying pressures outside it.

But if the judge steps back, examines the constitutional concerns fully, and refuses to convict under a law that legal authorities say no longer exists, then history will remember him differently. It will record that at a moment of national tension, one judge insisted that Nigeria must obey its own laws.

The world does not measure a nation’s strength by how loudly it wields power, but by how faithfully it upholds justice. That is the true test of democracy.

On 20 November 2025, the presiding judge will not just determine the fate of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. He will determine whether Nigeria stands with the rule of law or stands against it.

He will decide whether justice will be served or whether justice itself will be wounded.

In the end, the real question is simple:

Will the judge free Kanu, or will he convict Nigeria?

Family Writers Press International