For democracy to stand the test of time; it must earn the trust of electorates. When the democratic process is flawed and voters no longer have confidence in the procedure through which elected officials emerge, it weakens democracy, thereby causing a loss of faith in the ballot form of government. Electoral violence has become part and parcel of Nigeria’s democracy. For now, it is a misnomer to hold elections without complaints that eventually end up in legal fireworks.
Verdict versus justice
The court is seen as defender of justice, but there are fears that some men and women in the Temple of Justice have monetised their conscience for pecuniary interests. When the Supreme Court recently declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Nigeria’s validly elected president, discordant tunes ripped across the country. The Apex court dismissed petitions by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, as invalid, insisting that questioning the rationality behind the candidacy of the president or the vice president, Sen Kashim Shettima, was dabbling into a pre-election matter that is outside the jurisdiction of election courts.
It must be to the credit of some elections courts involved in the handling alleged electoral matters to have stood firm against pressures to look the other way and endorse the miscarriage of justice. Many citizens are aware that some of these judges have come under enormous influence to swing verdicts in favour of certain persons said to be connected to some powerful persons. This week, indefatigable Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan narrated insider’s account on how she resisted attempts to give up her mandate.
Incongruous verdicts from Plateau
One fact that is clear and upheld by the Supreme Court as contained in the Electoral Act 2022 is that pre-election matters are outside the purview of election tribunals. Curiously, this settled fact has not been accepted by some tribunal members and Court of Appeal justices. In some of the cases currently being handled by the Plateau State Election Court of Appeal Panel, three of the verdicts so far declared have been clearly against legal precedent.
The basis of the judgements has been tied to complaints by APC candidates on the rationality behind the emergence of PDP candidates. In the case of the Plateau North Senator, Simon Mwadkon, members of the Appeal Court justices overturned the verdict of the lower tribunal that upheld his election and ordered a rerun for all the parties. The poser: will the conduct of a rerun address the issue of alleged flaws in the emergence of Mwadkon as the candidate of the PDP? More strangely, the Appeal Court justices, in the case of the Shendam/Quaapan/Mikang Federal Constituency, nullified the election of Hon. Isaac Kwalu, and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a new Certificate of Return to the APC candidate, John Dafa’an. The panel also annulled the electoral victory f Hon Musa Agah of the PDP for the Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency and ordered a rerun over non-compliance with a Plateau High Court order for a repeat of the congress in 2022. Despite evidence tendered by the Plateau PDP that it complied with the court order for a repeat congress, the Appeal Court justices played deaf and dumb.
The national leadership of the PDP has questioned the rationale for these weird verdicts that have no legal precedent. The National Publicity Secretary of the party on Wednesday, Hon Debo Olugunagba, faulted the use of pre-election matters to truncate the electoral victory of the PDP’s candidates in Plateau.
Condemning the manner it described as “brazen departure by the Appeal Court Panel from the judicial practice where cases with similar facts and applicable laws, especially before the same Court, at the same material time, result in different outcomes,” the PDP spokesman expressed apprehension over the “different conclusions with respect to election appeals with the same subject matter, same facts, same circumstances and same applicable laws in bias judgements clearly skewed against the PDP in favour of the APC”.
Salvaging our election from courts
Apart from the PDP petitioning the National Judicial Council (NJC) over what it described as illegal verdicts delivered by the Appeal Court members on some of the electoral cases for Plateau, the party also called for the sacking of the panel to give room for the appointment of new justices to review verdicts that are contrary to laid-down rules and other cases yet to be decided. The new panel to be appointed should be warned to avoid dabbling into pre-election matters as enshrined in the relevant laws.
Nigerians must oppose what is gradually turning out to be the enthronement of democracy as defined by the court in clear disobedience of the laws. For public confidence to be restored in the judiciary, the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongba-Mensem, should urgently dissolve the Plateau State Election Appeal Panel and appoint a fresh team. As agreed and settled by the Supreme Court, in line with relevant laws as contained in the Nigerian electoral laws, new members of the panel, when appointed, should not be allowed to use pre-election matters as a basis to nullify elections. Allowing election courts to dabble into pre-election matters would amount to unleashing outright violation on the Nigerian Electoral Act 2022 and a deliberate attempt to enthrone judicial tyranny on the nation’s political system.
