By Ikechukwu Amaechi
On Wednesday, September 6, the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT, delivered judgement in the petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Peter Obi and the Labour Party, and the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the February 25 presidential poll.
The five judges that delivered the PEPT judgmentIt is instructive that the ruling came exactly on the day the respondent, Bola Tinubu, marked his 100th day in office as President. It is also worth noting that as the judgement was being delivered in Abuja, Tinubu who ordinarily should be in the eye of the storm, was in far-away New Delhi, India, where he is representing Nigeria on an observer status at the summit of the group of 20 most industrialised nations, G20, the premier forum for international economic cooperation, on the invitation of the incumbent chairman, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India.
I doubt if there is any Nigerian
who was in doubt what the outcome of the case would be. Before he left Nigeria
for India on Monday, Tinubu’s spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, told Nigerians that his
principal was “not worried” about the outcome of the court matter. The
braggadocio of the Tinubu loyalists in the week leading up to the judgement day
pointed to the fact that they were sure of the outcome.
As the PEPT was delivering its
judgement on Wednesday, a friend of mine, a senior lawyer, sent me a text
enquiring if I was watching it on television. He said the judges couldn’t even
have done a better job as defence attorneys. I asked him if the judiciary can
ever be redeemed and his answer was a categorical No!
I was saddened. Make no mistake
about it. I have never believed that Nigerian courts are capable of delivering
justice particularly in matters of high-octane political value like this one.
So, I was not saddened because I was disappointed. No! But to realise that many
lawyers are increasingly losing faith in the ability of the courts to deliver
justice is a bad omen.
I have had discussions in recent
times with many politicians who have been in courts either defending their
“mandates” as declared by the electoral umpire or trying to retrieve their
alleged “stolen mandates”. It has been a tale of woes on both sides. The only
determinant factor is money – loads of money.
But the outcome of this case
should worry any well-meaning Nigerian because it impugns on our so-called
democracy. For democracy to be “government of the people, by the people, for
the people” as former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, noted in his famous
Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863, the votes of the people must be the
sole determinant of who gets elected. That is not the case in Nigeria, as
indeed it is not in many other African countries, where elections are not free
and fair.
In every milieu where might is
right, and those who are powerful can do what they wish unchallenged, even if
their action is, in fact, unjustified, woe betides anyone who stands in their
way. That is clearly the case with our dear country where a few people have
totally captured the state. There is everything wrong with our democracy. In a
country where there is no difference between private and public purse, swearing
in “winners” of a contentious election before the final determination is made in
court is injurious not only to the so-called losers but the Nigerian state
itself.
All the odds are against the
petitioners. Attempt by the National Assembly in 2014 to make a law that would
make the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, take the
responsibility of proving the conduct and regularity of elections in the
country before the election petitions tribunal or the court failed. If that
Bill had scaled through, the resultant Act would have placed the burden of
proof on the INEC, instead of the litigants. It would have also reduced the
difficulties petitioners normally face while trying to get the necessary
documentary evidence in support of their petitions.
In their ruling, yesterday, the
five Justices blamed the petitioners for not producing enough evidence of
electoral malfeasance even when they were well aware that the Professor Mahmoud
Yakubu-led INEC blatantly refused to avail them those documents, flagrantly
disobeying the Tribunal’s order. While the alleged losers who, for all I care,
may indeed be the winners are further stretched financially in courts, those
that have been declared winners, who may indeed be the losers, make use of
public funds in defending their “mandates” in court.
Not only that, they deploy the
resources of the state – human and material – maximally. As it is the case in
this instant case, Tinubu has been using the enormous privileges and powers
conferred on him by the office of the presidency to consolidate power and
entrench himself. He sacked the Service Chiefs and appointed his loyalists. In
a country where the military swear allegiance to the President rather than the
Constitution, and are only interested in regime protection rather than
protection of the Nigerian state, wielding the coercive powers of the state
makes all the difference.
Immediately the PEPT announced
the judgement date, the Department of State Services, DSS, issued an ominous
warning against anyone who may have the appetite to protest the ruling. Before
Tinubu jetted out to India, he had a meeting with all the Service Chiefs behind
closed doors. The military top brass came out of the meeting to warn would-be
“troublemakers”.
While the petitioners were
finding it difficult to make a headway in the case, the President was busy
making juicy appointments and dispensing political patronages. Prince Lateef
Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, one of Tinubu’s lawyers at the
tribunal, is now the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of
Justice. Even presidential candidates of some political parties are seriously
lobbying President Tinubu for a slice of the national cake and pledging their
unalloyed loyalty.
I doubt if there is any Nigerian
who sincerely believed that the PEPT will sack Tinubu. And yesterday’s
judgement will only be a fait accompli at the Supreme Court should the
petitioners decide to go on appeal. Those who insist that what happened at the
Tribunal on Wednesday is evidence that Nigeria is still groping in the dark,
may not be wrong after all. Someone quipped: “After seeing this, do you still
want to waste time on Nigeria’s judiciary and questionable politicians?” Some
do but I don’t. Tinubu has wangled his way to the presidency and used the
judiciary to legitimise his position.
Ours is a democracy where the people have no say. As a pall of silence descends on Nigeria once again as it was the case when Prof Yakubu declared the presidential election result in the wee hours of the morning when most people were asleep, highly distraught but subdued Nigerians will pick the pieces of their lives and move on.
But I
foresee danger. Aside Nigerians like myself who have vowed never to vote again
in any Nigerian election and the attendant voter apathy, those who are still
foolhardy to throw their hat into the electoral ring may decide that henceforth
every electoral battle must be waged, won or lost at the polling booth rather
than waiting for INEC to make a declaration and embark on a wild goose chase at
the courts. When the judiciary wittingly or unwillingly takes the role of
democracy undertakers, that is a recipe for anarchy!
*Amaechi
is the publisher of TheNiche newspaper
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