ABSTRACT
The judicial powers of the Federation and of States are vested in Courts established by section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and other courts established for the Federation by an Act of the National Assembly or in case of States, Law made by the relevant State House of Assembly. The Judicial powers gradually, due to increase in litigations and criminal trials beyond the capacity of the regular courts, were no longer exclusive to the Courts but rather had to be shared with tribunals established for particular purposes. This development consequently brought about two parallel systems of adjudicating institutions operating side by side. While some tribunals, like the investment and Securities Tribunal, have justified their establishment by dispensing Justice timeously and by experts in the particular field of the tribunal's jurisdiction, others seem to have defeated the very essence of their establishment like Code of Conduct Tribunals. Tribunals like the Code of Conduct Tribunal apart from being redundant is seen as an agent of the Federal Government since it is absolutely controlled by the Code of Conduct Bureau, which is directly under the Presidency. This explains the redundant nature of the tribunal as it serves more or less as a stooge of the Presidency from where most of the culprits should have been arraigned. The Laws establishing various tribunals have their inbuilt shortcomings that hinder the trial procedure or occasion unnecessary delays contrary to the very essence of establishing the tribunals. The courts in Nigeria could be said to have contributed in some measure to the development of Law, particularly in the field of animal Law and Constitutional Law. However administration of Justice seems to suffer several challenges. Some of these challenges were attributed to factors associated with adversarial system, coupled with rancorous nature of proceedings and so on. Details of this has been vividly elucidated. The development in respect of funding of Courts has been pointed out.