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Scenario One:
The tiny West African nation of Ivory Coast held her presidential
elections back in October this year that ended in a
stalemate with no clear cut winner. A rerun was held
between the two front runners, Alassane Quattara and
current President Laurant Gbago. When results were
announced on Thursday, December 1, 2010, by the
country’s Independent Electoral Commission, the
opposition candidate, Alassane Ouattara, had scored
54.1% of the votes to President Laurent Gbago, who
scored 51.45% of the votes. Consequently, Quattara the
challenger, was announced by the electoral commission as
the winner of the presidential elections by a wide
margin. However, on Friday, December 3, 2010, the
Constitutional Council overturned the results already
announced and declared Gbago the winner after annulling
the results of seven regions in the northern parts of
the country, which incidentally are the strongholds of
Quattara. The annulment was designed to and did
effectively reduce his votes to 48.55%, thereby making
Gbago, the erstwhile loser, become the clear winner with
51.45% of the votes. That is what pen robbery does to
elections in Africa. Smooth rigging!
Scenario Two:
The tiny South/West state of Ekiti, Nigeria, held its gubernatorial
election on 04/14/2007 in the country’s general
elections of that year. When the results were announced
by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (INEC),
Segun Oni of the PDP was declared winner and sworn in as
Governor of Ekiti State. But the opposition candidate,
Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of the AC (now ACN) faulted the
results and headed to the Tribunal, which ordered a
rerun in several local government areas of the state to
determine the real winner. In the rerun election held on
04/25/2009, Governor Oni scored 109,000 of the votes to
his opponent’s106, 000 votes. Oni was again declared the
winner, whereupon the opposition candidate filed a
petition at the tribunal challenging the results in six
wards in Idi-Osi Local Government Area, which
incidentally are the strongholds of Governor Oni. Again
the Tribunal found for Oni. Dissatisfied, however, the
opposition candidate headed to the Appeal Tribunal,
which yet again found for Oni. Still dissatisfied, the
opposition candidate filed further appeal at the Court
of Appeal, which is the final Appeal Tribunal for
gubernatorial elections in Nigeria. On 10/15/2010, the
Court of Appeal overturned the results of the two
previous elections and the two previous rulings at the
Tribunals and declared Fayemi the winner after annulling
the results in Idi-Osi Local Government Area and
deducting same from the total vote count to return
Fayemi as the winner. Here again is what pen robbery
does to elections in Africa. Smooth rigging!
Similarities:
(1) In each case a rerun was held and a winner was duly declared by the
electoral agency duly authorized by law to conduct the
elections and return winners.
(2) In each case the results were overturned by an external body other
than the electoral agency.
(3) In each case the results of the elections were annulled in the
strongholds of the winner and then subtracted from the
total count in order to declare the loser as the winner,
and;
(4) In each case the will of the people as expressed in the elections was
rudely and blatantly substituted with the will of an
external authority to make the loser become the winner.
It is election rigging at its best.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new face of rigging in Nigeria, nay
Africa— developed, perfected, packaged and exported from
Nigeria! This is a Made-in-Nigeria electoral product
that she has managed to export to Ivory Coast. It is
well known fact that Nigeria has been exporting
corruption to other African nations and the world at
large in addition to her crude oil.
I don’t care who the beneficiaries are; whether it’s Governor Oni or
Oyinlola at the Tribunals or Fayemi or Aregbesola at the
Court of Appeal. It makes no difference to me. Both the
lower tribunals that gave judgments to the incumbents
and the higher tribunal that gave judgments to their
challengers are in the same boat of corruption using
their positions to rubbish democracy by supplanting the
will of the people and imposing their own in its place.
Disturbingly, democracy has indeed entered yet another
rough terrain in Nigeria—election rigging through the
judiciary.
This is the new generation rigging formula invented by the Nigerian
judiciary to replace the old generation formula
introduced by INEC that seemed to have outlived its
usefulness in this digital era. The Nigerian judiciary
has invented a modernized version to keep up with the
times.
It is neat and precise. Like the surgeon’s knife, it cuts through the
body of the election results right where it wants it
neatly with no blood stains. It has nothing to do with
stuffing of ballot boxes, arson, over-voting, violence
and intimidation of voters or any of the other electoral
malpractices associated with elections at the polling
stations. That is old school. Judges simply nix the
results in the strongholds of the winners and pronto,
the winner is suddenly transformed into the loser and
the loser becomes the winner!
This is the Nigerian judicial abracadabra that has found its way to Ivory
Coast, threatening to tear that war-torn nation further
apart. Ivory Coast might be its first port of call, but
by no means the last. Where else will it strike next in
Africa? African nations preparing for elections must
beware of this deadly cargo headed their way from
Nigeria. And if in doubt, they should check with Ivory
Coast to know just how deadly it is. No kidding!
The bottom line is that judgments delivered in election petitions in
Nigeria are nothing but products of corruption, pure and
simple—no but, what, if, when, or why. And like I said
above, I don’t care who the winners or losers are
because there are no real winners or losers at the end
of the day except for the poor masses that have been
reduced to canon fodders while the elites carry out
their nefarious activities in their name behind their
backs.
The courts have become cesspools of corruption and their judgments are
not worth the papers on which they’re scribbled with the
ink of corruption. And I’m not even the one saying it.
Higher judicial and legal authorities in Nigeria who
should and indeed know better than I do have come to the
same unfortunate but inescapable conclusions. It is time
to shoot straight.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Aloysius Katsina Alu recently
alerted the nation to corruption in the judiciary at the
occasion of the swearing in ceremony of new judicial
officers in Abuja. He sure knows what he was talking
about because he is the Chairman of the National
Judicial Council (NJC) that has been inundated with
corruption petitions against serving judicial officers
many of which are currently being investigated.
And former Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Kayode Eso, has
equally decried corruption in the nation’s judiciary and
in fact zeroed in on judges sitting in election petition
tribunals, including the Court of Appeal, which is the
ultimate Election Petition Tribunal in gubernatorial
cases.
The erudite Justice described the corrupt profiles of some judges sitting
in election tribunals as indeed “mind shattering” adding
that they “are not just millionaires as we are told but
billionaires”. Imagine Justices becoming billionaires
overnight just by upholding rigged election results or
upturning valid election results with a stroke of the
pen. The electorate could go to blazes. What do the
people know, anyway? That must count as one of, if not
the most lucrative job(s) on earth. The beast of
corruption has been unleashed on hapless Nigerians and
their votes no longer have meaning.
One could imagine JAMB candidates cramming the exam halls to get into the
legal profession in Nigeria and later fight to become
election petition judges. In turn that would turn
university admission officers into millionaires
overnight just by admitting failed candidates through
the back door and tossing out the door smart candidates
who passed their matriculation exams. Why must it end
with INEC and the judiciary? The invincible and
unstoppable Nigeria Corruption Steamroller grinds on.
Chikena! Nigeria is finished!
And
what is more: the President of the Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA), Mr. J.B Daudu, SAN, has spoken
in similar vein as indeed other Senior Advocates of
Nigeria (SANs) in a special report compiled by Ikekuckwu
Nnochiri of the Vanugard Newspaper 11/18/2010,
appropriately titled: “Corruption in Nigerian judiciary:
How safe is 2011 general elections?” Said he,
the NBA president:
“One indisputable
fact about politicians is that they are prone to
publicizing facts that others think were concluded in
secret. Consequently, everybody hears about the bloated
sums that have been given to judicial officers so that
the desires of elective office seekers can be
satisfied.”
Yes, they thought their corrupt acts carried out in
secret would never be known publicly, but they forget
that nothing is hidden under the sun. Somebody is
watching somewhere and the evil deeds of men carried out
in the dark of night are revealed in the day in broad
daylight. And their very own conducts thereafter, as for
example, the public outcry by AC chieftain that PDP was
plotting to arrest the Court of Appeal Judgment, easily
give them away as a bunch of crooks. Yes they give
themselves away by their very own acts as when they
began to make elaborate and involved preparations for
celebrating their impending victory, weeks before
judgment was delivered.
Only one who already knew what was coming would go so
far as to design and print huge posters banners and plan
party victory celebrations ahead of time, which was not
the case in previous tribunal cases where AC lost. Why
would Lai Mohammed fight to protect a judgment the
contents of which had not been delivered and made public
if it was not known to be favorable to his side? Were
the judgment known afore-hand to be unfavorable to AC,
the Court would have been viciously attacked by the AC
chieftain who cried wolf, Lai Mohammed. As the Holy Book
puts it, by their fruits we shall know them.
And to cap it all, Justices have actually been removed
from office as a result of corruption in election
tribunals. At this juncture, one could not help but
reproduce late Chief Gani Fawehimni’s presentation cited
in my earlier publication:
“Unfortunately, the downright dishonesty of
some of the Judges who were involved in 2003 Election
Tribunals gave the Nigerian people much worry. I will
refer to two instances: The first was the Anambra South
Senatorial Election Tribunal, which looked into the
grievances of a contestant Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu
against the election of Dr. Ugochukwu Uba. The Tribunal
found for Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu against Dr.
Ugochukwu Uba. Dr. Uba appealed to the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, he had been sworn in as a Senator. The matter
came before the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal
of three Justices, Hon. Justice Okwuchukwu Opene, Hon.
Justice David Adedoyin Adeniji and Hon. Justice Kumai
Bayang Akaahs disagreed among themselves.
Two of the Justices Hon. Justice Okwuchukwu Opene
and Hon. Justice David Adedoyin Adeniji gave judgment to
Dr. Ugochukwu Uba and the third Justice, Hon. Justice
Kumai Bayang Akaahs, the youngest of them disagreed and
dissented and gave judgment to Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu.
After the appeal, the National Judicial Council (NJC)
received petitions that two of the three Justices took
bribe. The National Judicial Council established under
Section 153 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, 1999 set up a committee headed by late
Justice Kolawole a retired Justice of the Court of
Appeal. After a thorough investigation by the Committee
it was found that Justice Okwuchukwu Opene who presided
at the Court of Appeal took a bribe of N15,000,000.00
(Fifteen million Naira) and Justice David Adedoyin
Adeniji took a bribe of N12,000,000.00 (Twelve million
Naira) and three unascertained Ghana-must-Go bags and
that Justice Kumai Bayang Akaahs the youngest of them
refused to take bribe. He rejected corruption and did
the Judiciary proud.
Consequently, the National Judicial Council (NJC)
recommended to the President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria that these two justices, Hon. Justice Okwuchukwu
Opene and Hon. Justice David Adedoyin Adeniji were
guilty of corruption and abuse of office and that they
should be sacked as Justices of the Court of Appeal. On
the 3rd of May, 2005, the President acting under Section
292 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999, dismissed those two Justices from the
Judicial Bench of Nigeria.
The Second instance was the Akwa Ibom State
Governorship Election Tribunal set up after the 2003
Governorship Election. There were five members of the
Tribunal. Whilst the proceedings were still pending in
the Tribunal, on the 10th July, 2003 the petitioner
petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria who is the
Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC)
complaining that four of the five members of the
Tribunal i.e. the Chairman, Hon. Justice M. M. Adamu (a
Lady), Hon. Justice D. T. Ahura, Hon. Justice A. M.
Elelegwa and Chief Magistrate O. J. Isede had been
compromised with large sums of money as bribe by the
Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah.
The National Judicial Council (NJC) investigated
the complaints through a committee set up for that
purpose and found that the allegations were true and
that the Chairman
of the Election Tribunal and three other members
received bribes during the sitting. They were
accordingly dismissed from the judicial Bench. One Judge
who was not a member of the Tribunal, Hon. Justice
C.P.N. Senlong of the Federal High Court was also
dismissed for corruption and abuse of office because he
was found to have associated with one of the contestants
in a corrupt manner. These two examples of judicial
corruption must not be allowed to happen or re-occur in
the new Tribunals for the 2007 Elections”.
In the face of this endemic state of affairs in Nigeria
that has assumed frightening dimensions, it becomes
laughable, pathetic, disingenuous, hypocritical and
indeed delusional for anyone to go to town applauding
the judgment of the Court of the Appeal in both Ekiti
and Osun states or any other case for that matter,
because all of its judgments in election petitions are
tainted with corruption. I’m, therefore, inclined to
treat virtually all of the judgments delivered by the
Court of Appeal in election petitions with a wave of the
hand as products of corruption, my research in the
Sokoto State case having thoroughly exposed me to the
goings on in the Court of Appeal. It’s out and out sick
judicial institution that is in need of redemption.
Therefore, while it is perfectly understandable that ACN
partisans would be rejoicing at their good luck and see
these recent judgments as “godsent,” God might not have
a hand in their “victories” because He is not a God of
corruption and the Devil himself could be taking all the
credit for the judgments they have procured from the
Court of Salami rather than from the Court of Justice
ruled by the blind goddess Artemis. The goddess ruling
over Salami’s Court is not blind but wide eyed,
demanding Ghana-Must Go.
What then is there to rejoice over, anyway? It is
corruption of the judiciary and access to public funds
for more corruption while the people are left to rue
their ill-fate? Is ACN not the second reincarnation of
the AD that was in power throughout the South/West
before OBJ overran the region in 2003? What were the
legacies of the AD in the South/West when it held sway
for four years in this dispensation in the LOOBO states
minus Edo and Delta, from Ondo all the way to Lagos
States? Where are their legacies?
How much did AD transform the South/West when it held
the reins of power in the region unchallenged? And what
are Bola Tinubu’s legacies in Lagos? How transformed was
Lagos under Tinubu for eight solid years? If it was, we
wouldn’t be hearing about the wonders Governor Fashola
is doing in the state today. If it was, Lagos wouldn’t
be one of the filthiest and infrastructure-challenged
cities in the world today. And if it was, there would be
no BBC documentary revealing the rot in Lagos to the
world. Who is fooling who?
There is nothing to rejoice over in the South/West
becoming an ethnic enclave of the ACN as it was of the
AG, AD, AC, and now ACN. This linear succession
trajectory was only broken by the PDP interjecting
itself in 2003 courtesy of OBJ, which, however, did not
go down well with ethnic jingoists in the zone now being
led by Bola Tinubu from Lagos. It is Tinubu’s game plan
that is currently playing out in the South/West. ACN
chieftains in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo and indeed Lagos
states, are now under the suzerainty of Lagos political
overlord, who is now acting as if he were the political
heir apparent to beloved the late sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo.
But it is a sad day for the nation that the South/West
has simply withdrawn into an ethnic cocoon with these
questionable electoral victories. Nigeria has moved
beyond the ethnic parties of the First Republic and
that’s why we’re being hard on Malam Adamu Ciroma and
his revisionist anachronism in the north for taking the
nation back to its regional, ethnic past.
There is no region in the nation that is still
maintaining purely ethnic party. The North has no
successive parties for the NPC and NEPU. Ditto for the
East. The NCNC has no successor in the East today. APGA
and PPA are no successors of the NCNC. Only ACN is for
the AD and UPN and AG in that order. Yes, only the West
has refused to shed its ethnic coat since independence
to date. And I perfectly understand the ethnic
sentiments of many of the ACN chieftains to retake their
region from the “Federal forces” represented by the PDP
as it was back in the day with the AG and UPN.
It explains why the ACN is on rampage in the West and
the West alone never bothering itself with what goes on
in other parts of the country, for instance, its loss in
Anambra gubernatorial election where its candidate, Dr.
Chris Ngige lost. ACN kept mum and allowed Ngige to
carry his load all by himself and lost. But when it
comes to the South/West, it is fight to finish!
If this was a plot then with Justice Salami to return
the zone to ethnic ACN, it represents a huge setback for
national integration and the mainstreaming of the
South/West, which had been achieved heretofore. However,
if the South/West truly wants to go back to its ethnic
cocoon, let the people themselves say so with their
votes. Let the people do it with their votes. Justice
Ayo Salami and Bola Tinubu shouldn’t speak for them
through the back door. It is both unethical and
undemocratic and they have no right to, seriously.
Folks, I’m ditching it out hot and sizzling as it is, no
holds-barred, because I’m sick and tired of what
Nigerians have made of democracy, including the
judiciary itself. A judicially hijacked democracy is no
democracy at all.
And here comes the Big One! The NBA, citing statistics from the National
Judicial Commission (NJC) came out with a smoking
gun—the earth-shattering revelation indicating that a
whopping 80% of members of the Nigerian Judiciary are
incompetent and below average. That’s right. 80% are
downright incompetents! And you’re wondering, what the
heck is happening in Nigeria! Can’t get that damned
place clean up for real?
Who knew that the NJC had been discretely rating our judges and keeping
its findings to itself away from the public? Who knew
that the NJC knew all along that only 20% of judicial
officers in Nigeria are dispensing justice and the rest
have been dispensing injustice to Nigerians and kept all
of that information to itself?
I give kudos to the present leadership of the NBA in this issue. They
have done the nation a great service indeed by revealing
the rot in the judiciary. What needs to be done is to,
as a matter of public duty, engage the process of
rooting out the incompetents and the corrupt from the
judiciary to save our nation and our democracy. It
shouldn’t stop at mere revelation. NBA senior members
are the conduit pipes for judicial corruption, and if
the leadership is serious, it should start its own house
cleaning exercise now!
What else has the NJC found out that it’s keeping from Nigerians? This
shroud of secrecy must be rented to further expose the
innards of the judiciary much as it is happening in
other departments of government through the untiring
efforts of the EFCC, which the corrupt judiciary has
been frustrating all along.
In effect, the NJC has declared the entire judiciary as incompetent,
because the remaining 20% is so infinitesimal as to
amount to nothing. Now we have an incompetent judiciary
on top of a chronically corrupt judiciary. What a double
whammy! Is it any wonder then that the judiciary has
been taking the nation on roller coaster in its handling
of the election petitions?
Four good years after the 2007 elections the judiciary is yet to conclude
election petitions! What manner of judiciary is that?
But there is a method to the madness though. All that
delay is not for nothing. It’s to enable the judiciary
perfect its own rigging formula, which is now being
swiftly applied with reckless abandon, one case after
another in the dying minutes.
The truth of the matter is that we simply do not know
who the rightful winners of the 2007 elections in these
states are anymore! It is not who INEC told us. It is
not who the tribunals and the Court of Appeal told us
either. It is who the people themselves told us and the
only way to find out is to go back to the people who, by
the way, are still alive, not judges. And that
invariably means conducting rerun elections between the
right candidates and nothing else.
For instance, conducting a rerun in the contentious six
wards in Idi-Osi Local Government Area of Ekiti state
shouldn’t be such a big deal that we would be wasting
our time and money running from one judicial pillar to
another judicial post with nocturnal visits armed with
Ghana-Must-Go in between.
What we are doing presently is simply replacing rigging
by INEC with rigging by the judiciary by robbing Peter
to pay Paul. However, the case of Ekiti stands out as a
sore thumb because it involves the President of the
Court of Appeal himself, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, who
presided over this judgment. He made sure he handled it
himself. Here is some interesting background to this
case as recalled by Dr. Okonwo Nnaji in his article:
EKITI
JUDGMENT:
ACN AND ITS “ARREST DIATRIBE”
“It
is on record that the capon of the ACN Mafia, Mr. Bola
Tinubu
has variously been linked with the President of the
court of Appeal,
Justice Isa Ayo Salami, which Tinubu himself confirmed in an advertorial
authored by him and published in various national
newspapers. It is even yet to be denied by either
Justice
Salami
or his friend, Bola Tinubu that the latter hosted Salami
to a lavish reception shortly after his (Salami's)
confirmation as President of the Appellate Court by the
Senate.
It is
equally on record that whereas the identities of the
Justices who would be members of the panel that will
determine the Ekiti re-run appeal were not unveiled
until the day of adoption of briefs by counsel, members
of the ACN in Ekiti had been boasting that they would
get a favourable composition as Justice Salami is an
avowed friend of their financier and Major Shareholders,
Tinubu. It was no surprise therefore that they trooped
out to the streets and various drinking and "Paraga"
joints to celebrate the confirmation of their
expectation upon the unveiling of the membership of the
Appeal Panel, headed by no less a person than their man,
Justice Salami.
The
question to ask then is what could have informed
Mohammed of a favourable judgment which he is accusing
the PDP of wanting to arrest? Could it be that the
judgment has been leaked to them or could they have been
assured of a favourable judgment by anybody? What formed
the basis for the attempt by ACN's Lai Mohamed to
blackmail the PDP with the outcome of a judgment that is
still being expected?”
Now pray, how could a judicial officer who was treated to a grand
reception by the chairman of a political party which is
a party to an election petition allow himself or be
allowed to preside over such petition even without more?
What manner of justice would such a judge be expected to
dispense in the circumstances?
Here then is the critical issue in this matter: Was the documented
personal relationship existing between the President of
the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, and the ACN
chieftain, Chief Bola Tinubu, not enough to disqualify
him outright from touching that case in the first place?
Would it surprise anyone, therefore, that the judgment
had been leaked to ACN weeks before it was delivered by
Salami hence the public outcry by ACN about alleged
attempts by the PDP to “arrest” it and the elaborate
preparations made by the party to celebrate its
contrived victory? These are questions still hanging in
the air that the NJC has been called upon to unravel as
in the previous two cases cited above as well as the
case of Sokoto state that would have gone the way of
Ekiti in the hands of the same Justice Salami, but for
the timely intervention of the Supreme Court.
Mission Statementt
AT THIS JUNCTURE, I would like to remind the reader that this series
started with digs on the nation’s judiciary with regards
to its emerging dual profile as the ultimate
gubernatorial terminator and kingmaker via election
petitions. And it’s ending on the same note. It has to
be because with the newfound power assumed by the
nation’s judiciary, the survival of Nigeria’s democracy
may well depend on the competence, integrity,
incorruptibility and professionalism of the nation’s
judicial officers.
When voters step out of their homes to cast their votes for the
candidates of their choice, they expect their votes to
count and be counted. No one goes to the polls expecting
or thinking that ultimately it is one judge or a band of
judges sitting in elevated platform that would determine
who would be his governor or parliamentary
representative as the case may be. If that were the case
he might as well decide not to come out to vote at all
and let the judges do the voting themselves.
It is either the people are allowed to do the voting and elect their
leaders or the judges do the voting themselves in their
chambers and elect leaders for the people. The nation
cannot have it both ways— for people to vote at
elections and then have judges stepping in later to
overturn results and impose leaders on the people behind
their backs. It is a flagrant abuse of the democratic
process.
There are no two ways about it. The idea of “Judge-Made” governors, as
one writer puts it, is totally alien to, and, therefore,
unacceptable in our democracy or any democracy for that
matter. The seemingly wholesale takeover of the
electoral process by the judiciary without deference to
either INEC or the people themselves is antithetical to
democracy.
A judge-made governor is an impostor and can, therefore, not legitimately
parade himself as the people’s governor, because he’s
not a true representative of the people but a
representative of the judiciary that made him. It’s a
shame that some governors in Nigeria are happy to wear
the label of “Judge-Made Governor” on their
gubernatorial sleeves.
While many Nigerians seemed carried away by the judgments of the Appeal
Court without adverting their minds to the corrupt
manner in which they were procured, it is gratifying to
note that many a having to rethink their earlier
positions. In this connection I would respectfully seek
leave of the reader to cite a few write ups that seem to
undergird this new thinking.
Ekiti: Electoral Justice vs. Judicial
Robbery
and the second piece by
Tunde Akinrinsola with the unflattering title, “Enter!
Fayemi, the Judge-made Governor of Ekiti”
published respectively in the November 26th
and 29th editions of the African Herald
Express newspaper, which can be accessed respectively
through the above links.
As indicated in the title of his piece, Ayo Odesodun,
who was at first jubilant about the judgment a while
back later turned around to characterize the judgment as
nothing short of “judicial robbery”.
He confessed that like many Nigerians, he had been
misled into initially applauding the Court of Appeal
judgment by newspaper reports without having first read
the judgment itself to see if it has any merits to it.
And as he did he eventually discovered for himself that
there was nowhere vote rigging was mentioned in the
judgment on the part of the sacked governor. On the
contrary what he found was the total annulment of the
votes of an entire local government area, which happens
to be the stronghold of the Governor Oni on the flimsy
ground that the voter’s register was missing and
couldn’t, therefore, be tendered. And worse still, he
discovered in that judgment that the same voter register
for the local government had, in fact, been burned by
agents of the Action Congress (AC), the very party of
the petitioner himself! And finally, he discovered that
the Court of Appeal simply annulled the votes cast in
that local government area which is the stronghold of
Governor Segun Oni and subtracted them from the total
vote count to declare Dr. Kayode Fayemi the winner—in
other words, robbing Peter to pay Paul!
And that is not all. The writer found that Fayemi and
his AC had made elaborate preparations for the
celebration of his impending victory two weeks before
the judgment was given. It is on record that the AC had
cried out that some people were about to “arrest” the
judgment of the court that was about to be delivered. As
Governor Oni’s special assistant asked: How did Fayemi
and the AC know afore-hand the outcome of the case and
proceeded to make such elaborate preparations for the
celebration of victory many weeks ahead of time and they
were so worried that some people might temper with the
favorable judgment coming their way?
These are the dark clouds hovering over the purported
Fayemi victory at the Appeal Court. These are the
miseries surrounding Court of Appeal judgment in the
Ekiti Gubernational Election Petition that the National
Judicial Council has been asked to unravel.
And that is why gubernatorial petitions indeed all
petitions must not be terminated at the Court of Appeal
but must be allowed to go all the way to the Supreme
Court. The fate that befell the governors of Ondo, Edo,
Ekiti, Osun and Delta in the hands of the Court of
Appeal might have been different had there been appeals
allowed all the way to the Supreme Court.
A case in point in this regard is that of the Governor
of Sokoto State alluded to earlier whom the Court of
Appeal was already itching to dethrone even though, like
Governor Oni of Ekiti state, he had won a court ordered
election rerun in his state. Yet his opponent was able
to manipulate another division of the same Court of
appeal Justices after the Governor had won his appeal in
one division with a view to declaring his opponent the
winner of the rerun. And the Appeal Court was on the
verge of doing his bidding when the Governor cried to
the Supreme Court on the grounds of abuse of court
process and the Supreme Court saved his neck from the
Almighty Court of Appeal. Otherwise the nation would
have woken up one morning with the news of yet another
governor dethroned and a serial loser crowned as
Governor of Sokoto State!
And as usual, Nigerians and the press would have been
jubilating and attacking Iwu and INEC. Our people have a
long, long way to go indeed. Folks, it is time to remove
the blinkers and get down to some serious thinking
because all that glitters is not gold. Let face it: The
judiciary is corrupt and that is no news. Therefore
Nigerians should ttop pretending that its judgment is
the last hope of the common man. Which common man are we
talking about, by the way? The man who bribed his way to
the Government House? Please give me a break! Common man
my foot!
This is what the nation is up against—the use of the
judiciary to overturn election results and the
consequent imposition of electoral losers on the people
in the states.
Armed
with this blanket power, the Court of Appeal Justices
have been carrying on as if they were gods. With a
stroke of the pen, they sack governors from office and
replace them with their men. With a stroke of the pen,
they throw out votes cast by Nigerians at the polls and
replace them with their own votes. With a stroke of the
pen, they nullify results of elections and replace them
with their own results.
And so from Edo to Ondo, Ekiti to Osun, Rivers to Delta, these power
drunk Justices have been on elections annulment spree;
sacking governors and legislators and replacing them
with their favorite candidates all on their own without
as much as deferring to the people themselves. Only
Delta state was an exception where a rerun was ordered.
Thank God for His little mercies!
How could a band of judges sitting in elevated platforms somewhere in
Benin City declare that there were no elections in an
entire Delta state when elections were holding in other
states the very same day? How much sense does that make
even at face value without more? What exactly is the
court saying here? Is it telling the world that the
millions of Deltans, who trooped out to vote on election
day were animals or aliens from outer space or
somethings that are not recognized to vote? Or is it
telling the world that there was a curfew imposed only
in Delta state during the elections that prevented
Deltans from coming out to vote?
The
judiciary is messing up our democracy. But does it have
to be this way? No. It doesn’t have to be this way.
There has to be change. As the NBA President opined:
“It is not for
nothing that the finality of certain courts in election
matters has been displaced, leaving finality to the
Supreme Court. That measure shows the level of
confidence the legislature still reposes in the apex
court. One point is however clear, if the warning
signals raised on the issue of corruption is not heeded,
jurisdiction may one day be taken away from regular
courts on election matters”.
My candid advice to the nation is not to allow our democracy be in the
hands of one court—the Court of Appeal with Justice Ayo
Salami as its president. When we recall that it was the
judiciary that was used to kill democracy in 1993, no
one needs to be reminded that our democracy is doomed in
the hands of the dishonorable Justices of the Appeal
Court.
Solution: My earlier suggestion—Make the Supreme Court the final Court of
Appeal in all matters as it should be and let’s see how
unscrupulous politicians will handle it. Do that and the
ACN will be singing the blues all the way with its
Justice Salami deprived of giving the final word on
election petitions. It’s about time the ACN demonstrated
to us that it is capable of winning elections without
going through the back door of judicial coronation after
the polls. That‘s dishonorable. That’s unethical. That’s
shameful.
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. is an Attorney and Public Affairs Analyst and
can be reached at
mudiagaone@yahoo.com
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Published
December 9th, 2010
