Judiciary’s Double Standards, A Danger To Our Democracy

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The Constitution gives our Judiciary a role – sacred one at that – in our democracy. It is mandated to give justice to whom it is due. But we are now in a situation where some corrupt members of the Bench collude with powerful politicians to remove and emplace those rejected at the polls. The Nigerian Judiciary is now a self-styled “power broker”.

Nigeria is not the only country where the courts are called upon to adjudicate in electoral cases. Even in the United States where we copied our presidential system from, the courts had their hands full at the end of the 2020 controversial elections. Back home in Africa, the Kenya Supreme Court was saddled with adjudicating a presidential election outcome, and it delivered justice to the true winner of the August 9, 2022 presidential election, William Ruto.

Bulkachuwa: Red Rag To A Bull

By Banji Ojewale

We are not in Spain. But there, it is claimed that bulls are enraged when red flags flutter before them.   The matador, the man who fights and kills a bull in a sport, gets the beast into the game by waving the red cloth. The indifferent, motionless animal only charges at his opponent when it sights his muleta, the stick with a crimson swathe employed in the final third of the bullfight…We know what follows:  savagery, slaughter and sanguinary cheers from the spectators.

*Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa 

In Nigeria, we appear to be in for a bullfight over the Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa affair. She is the President of the Appeal Court, who has been asked to head the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal looking into the suit of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar. They are challenging the victory of Muhammadu Buhari in the poll of February 2019.