INEC And The Irony Of Election Postponement By: Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

On this platform last week, I advised the politicians to be
ready to accept the verdict of the 2019 elections which supposed to
commence with the Presidential and National Assembly elections on
16th February 2019. The message then was that any politician that
is aggrieved by the election verdict should approach the Election
Petition Tribunal to ventilate his grievances as laid down by the
law rather than calling on his supporters to engage in the act of
lawlessness. I made this appeal as a concerned Nigerian citizen who
is interested in a peaceful and credible elections but a learned
friend of mine saw my genuine admonition as contained in the write
up titled ELECTORAL DEFEAT: CHOOSING BETWEEN THE LAW
AND LAWLESSNESS in a different way as he reacted as
follows:

“ No need to belabour myself reading this jaundiced write up to
the end .The very fact that you called out Uche Secodus for making
a genuine statement telling Nigerians to protect their votes and
resist any attempt to rig the forthcoming elections while leaving
out Gov. El Rufai ‘body bag’ inciting /hate speech proves that you
are partisan. Your comments on social media betrays your claim that
you are not a card carrying member of any political party or its
sympathizer .I can safely conclude that from your statement you are
telling Nigerians to be calm if their collective will is being
diverted .No way ! Expect the Venezuelan option if the current APC
government tries to rig itself to power. Hypocrisy and bigotry
won’t take us anywhere. Watch out and fasten your seat belt.”

In response to my learned friend who is from the Eastern part of
the country, I said:

“I thank you for your opinion which you are entitled to. By your
own confession you didn’t read what you called ‘jaundiced write
up’. Before I wrote this write up, I wanted to quote Chief Secondus
in order to be very fair to him as my tradition in writing but
couldn’t lay my hand on the piece as at the time I wrote but based
my comment on a News Editorial by a Radio Station. As a lawyer when
trying to argue a case before the court, I don’t need to cite all
the case authorities in law reports to convince the court in my
submission. What I can only say for now is that Sir, you have got
it wrong for not reading the entire ‘jaundiced write up’. If I were
you I would read it in entity and do a comprehensive rebuttal. I
once had a cause to disagree with Chief Mike Ozekhome, a learned
silk on a particular section of the ACJA, I politely wrote
rejoinder on why I disagreed with him. To me your accusation of
hypocrisy and bigotry has no foot to stand .Do have a pleasant
day!”

Before I came across this type of reaction from my learned
friend, I used to have issues with a music lyric by one of those
Nigerian young artists that sang the lyric : “A ma ni problem”
meaning (We will have problem). The first time I heard it being
played at a filling station where I went to fuel my car; I was
asking myself which kind of music was that praying for problem as I
was not used to or admire such kind of music unlike those of my
favourite musicians like late Haruna Ishola and Ebenezer Obey who
are masters of wisdom when singing. The reaction of my learned
friend seems to have proved the guy that sang “A ma ni problem”
right. How will there be no problem if will continue to have in our
mindst people who do not read in entity a particular set of facts
or submission before making their own jaundiced opinions or
judgments? Can such learned friends be a good materials or
candidates for our judicial bench? Good materials for the bench
must know how to critically examine the set of facts placed before
them before arriving at sound judgments. To better illustrate this
a reference was made to one of our late Supreme Court Jurists, Hon.
Justice Chukwudi Oputa in the book LEGAL LUMINARIES that :

“In the case of Onafowokan Vs. The State (1987) 7 SCNJ 233,
Justice Oputa taught the trial judges on how a debt owed to the
fact of a case must be paid before entering into the detailed
discussion of law when he said that ‘I have observed in our trial
courts a propensity to enter into a detailed discussion of law
without first of all settling all the debts they owe to the facts.
It is on the facts as properly perceived, accurately evaluated and
definitely and specifically found that the law will apply. Any
discussion of the law however erudite without a thorough and
satisfactory evaluation of and decision on the facts of the cases
of both the prosecution and the defence will be merely academic and
will create problems for appellate courts”.

The lesson from this is that there is nothing bad in criticizing
others who express their minds or views on a particular issue but
when that is being done the entire set of facts must be critically
examined objectively before judgment is passed whether to agree and
disagree with the other side. Again the assertion that my comments
on social media betrays my claim that am not a card carrying member
of any political party or its sympathizer as asserted by my learned
friend who further said that by my statement I was telling
Nigerians to be calm if their collective will is being diverted.
This had really shown that I had been grossly misunderstood by my
learned friend. By his own confession he did not need to belabour
himself to the entire write up, but we need to ask: why did he come
to the wrong conclusion? I have here at the beginning summarised my
message in the said write up which is “if you are aggrieved by the
election results, embrace the law by going to the tribunal rather
than lawlessness by creating unnecessary violence”. Must a reader
be a student of English Language to understand this? While I must
again point it out here that I am not a card carrying member of any
political party for now, but that does mean that I do not have
admirers among the politicians who I will actually vote for during
elections in the exercise of my civic responsibility as a Nigerian
citizen. One thing that is also in my character is that I do not
take my admiration for any politician to the extreme.

This now brings us to the postponement by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) of the Presidential and
National Assembly elections earlier scheduled for 16th February to
23rd February 2019 while that of the Gubernatorial and Houses of
Assembly from 3rd March to 9th March 2019 . Almost everybody was
taken by surprise by the sudden postponement having prepared for
the elections.The two main political parties, All Progressive
Congress (APC) and People Democratic Party (PDP) out of many have
engaged in blaming games and trying to outwitting each other. The
postponement of the elections by the INEC on the ground of logistic
problem was done at eleven hour when everyone had made a lot of
committment and sacrifice for the exercise which made the
postponement to be very pain. People have closed up business to
travel to the various parts of the country for the election
purpose. Many travelled long distances to pick their children from
various schools.

There is nobody to take the blame than the INEC itself which had
actually accepted the responsibility for the postponement. People
were right in their contentions asking that why must the INEC wait
for so long when it knew that it could no longer be able to conduct
the elections as earlier scheduled. That waiting until when people
have put in everything in place in the readiness for the elections
before announcing the postponement was very sad.One of the problems
with us in this country is that we do not learnt from the past
mistakes and make necessary amendment to avoid the future
reoccurrence of such things. In 2011, INEC postponed election on
the ground of logistic problem as according to the then Chairman of
the commission, Professor Attahiru Jega “what worth doing worth
doing well”. In 2015, the postponement was on the ground of the
security when the then government said it could not guarantee the
security if the elections were conducted as earlier scheduled.
Today in 2019 the commission is back again postponing elections on
the ground of problem of logistic and bad weather.

When shall we get it right? We must learn to always get it
right. The commission cannot complain of inadequeate fund to do the
necessary things that are required to have credible elections. This
happening has again shown to us once again the uncaring attitude to
work of the people employed and being paid salaries to discharge
their responbilities as required of them. It is always
disappointing that at various levels of government sectors or
departments, those in charge do not know the purpose for which they
are employed. Files that are supposed to be treated with utmost
urgency are abandoned or attended to at the whims and caprices of
those government employees .Unfortunately there are many people
outside there looking for jobs to do but you have a situation on
the ground where those who are employed are not ready to do the
work .How will a country develop and things move forward with this
kind of attitudes? There must be change of attitude to work
wherever we find ourselves.

While one hopes that the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) must have learnt enough lesson and will live up
to its responsibility to find lasting solution to the incessant
irony of election postponement for the sake of the future, I
believe we must have consolation in the fact that the INEC itself
did not cover up its lapses as if it had refused to come out to
call a spade a spade and gone ahead with the elections ,its would
have created more problems for itself than it can solve as the
outcome of such exercise would not be palatable.Having all
expressed our disappointments and no matter what our grieavances
might have been ,the deed was already done and we must still
nothwithstanding accept the plea of the INEC Chairman , Professor
Mahmood Yakubu that :

“…I want to appeal to Nigerians and all stakeholders for their
understanding in what has been a very difficult decision for the
Commission.But we believe that ultimately this is for the good of
our democracy.I wish to assure you of our commitment to free,fair
and credible elections. As Chairman of INEC, and on behalf of the
Commission, we take full responsibility for what happened and we
regret any inconvenience our decision might have caused.”

REMEMBERING GENERAL MURTALA MUHAMMED

This is another season to remember General Murtala Muhammed
(GMG), the people’s General and a Head of State who was
assassinated in a bloody military coup led by Colonel Bukar Dimka
about 43 years ago. 13th February 1976 was one of the saddest days
in the history of Nigeria. He came to power on 27th July 1975 after
the regime of General Yakubu Gowon was ousted in a bloodless
military coup.On assumption of office, he brought many changes to
into government by his simplicity in carrying himself about.He
instilled discipline and patriotism into the lives of the Nigerian
people particularly the civil servants who must be in their offices
before 8:00AM. Anywhere he went, he did not go about with siren
entourage of security personnels, the situation which was
eventually exploited by the plotters to eliminate him on his way to
his office on the fateful day he was assassinated.

Within the six months in spent in office as Head of State, he
made a remarkable impact in the lives of Nigerians. He laid the
foundation for the return of the nation to the civilian rule on 1st
October 1979. He created more states to make 19 states in Nigeria
then. He made move for a new Federal Capital Territory for Nigeria.
In one of speeches when swearing in those to work with him, he
advised them to the very careful about the company they kept as “ a
man is judged by the company he keeps’. He brought about African
conscienceness among African countries with his popular speech of
“Africa has Come of Age”. On 13th February 1976 when he was
assassinated the nation went cold and into serious mourning .The
world particularly the Africa equally felt the exit of GMM. The
people’s General never died in vain as those that were involved in
his assassination paid the supreme price for his death. According
to late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in his speech titled GENERAL MURTALA
RAMAT MUHAMMED DIED A MARTYR TO NIGERIA’ PEACE, UNITY AND SURVIVAL
delivered on 20th February 1979 at the end of one week mourning
declared by the nation in honour of GMM, he said:

“…Murtala Muhammed was a man of action par excellency. His words
were few: they were never empty, nor were they ever spoken merely
to please and deceive his hearers: and before the echoes of his
words had died down, they had been followed by lightning and
meaningful action…”

Now, the question to the present day leaders is that: what do
they want to be remembeed for? I pray the Almighty Allah to
continue to bless the soul of the people’s General and put him
among His righteous servants in the al jannah firdaos!

REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON DUTY OF JUDGE TO
LAW

“It is the duty of the judex to expound what the law is and we
should loyally follow the doctrine of stare decisis. Our problems
as judges should and must not be to consider what social and
political problems do today require, that is to confuse the task of
a judge with the task of a legislator. More often than not, the
law, as passed by the legislators, has produced a result which does
not accord with the requirements of today. Let that defective law
be put right by legislators but we must not expect the judex, in
addition to all his other problems, to act as Lord Mansfield did,
and decide what the law ought to be. In my humble view, he (the
judex) is far better employed if he puts himself to the much
simpler task of deciding what the law is.”

Per ADEREMI , JSC in Dapianlong Vs. Dariye (2007) 4 SC (Pt. 111)
Pgs. 216-217 Paras 35-40, 5

THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW

On effect of successful preliminary objection against an
appeal

“It is settled law that where a court finds that a preliminary
objection succeeds, there is no need going into the merits of the
appeal.”

See AFRIBANK (NIG) PLC Vs. AKWARA (2006) 5 NWLR (Pt. 974) Pg.
656 Para B

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