On An Independent Path

Apart from outcomes of the presidential and governorship electoral cases, which the Supreme Court will have the final say, President of the Court of Appeal, Monica Dongban-Mensem, looks sets to be the most consequential judicial officer for the 2027 general elections.

Dongban-Mensem is in a position to determine the political fortunes of aspiring lawmakers in the hundreds of legal challenges that could precede and follow the elections.

The Court of Appeal President will likely head the Presidential Election Tribunal herself and could potentially set the legal benchmark for assessing the election outcome, binding justices of the Supreme Court to her standard.

As head of the Court of Appeal, she will handpick the dozens of judges who will sit at the election tribunal across the 36 states and the FCT to decide the winners and the losers.

The judges she chooses to sit in the tribunals will likely reflect her values, and the verdicts they deliver could also reflect how she sees Nigeria’s democracy and the role of the judiciary in interpreting electoral laws.

As President of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami, presided over election tribunals that rewrote the rule of independence and separation of powers and significantly weakened the hold of the ruling party on the states.

The losses the PDP suffered over several years, from 2007 to 2010, led the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act to give the Supreme Court the final say in electoral disputes involving gubernatorial elections.

While a handful of observers view the allocation of houses to judges of the Court of Appeal by the FCTA as a subtle way of compromising and buying the loyalty of the court, there are no signs that’s happening.

From recent rulings delivered by different divisions, Dongban-Mensem, is running a tight ship free of outside influence, except maybe, her own views of the rule of law in Nigeria.

The Court of Appeal is essentially running on an independent streak, from lower courts, from the Supreme Court and the influence of the two other arms of government.

In June, the Court ordered a stay of execution of a Federal High Court ruling compelling INEC to de-register five opposition political parties, including the ADC.

In recent verdicts of the court, the makeup of the three-man panels delivering the rulings say all that needs to be known about the politics of Dongban-Mensem.

Looking closely, the judges that sat on the panels were themselves a window on which way the court would swing. And just like Ayo Salami, the choices she makes could make or break political parties, sustain or change the direction of Nigeria’s democracy.