Unending ‘war’ between Nigerian politicians and judges – TheNigerialawyer

Jide Ojo

[email protected]^[1]
08077787701

There are three arms of government, no doubt: the executive, the
legislature and the judiciary. They are very pivotal to
sustainability of any democracy. Other institutions of democracy
include the Election Management Bodies such as the Independent
National Electoral Commission and State Independent Electoral
Commission, Civil Society Organisations, the media and the
political parties. Members of political parties are called
politicians. They elect among themselves leaders to run their party
offices. Some of the organs of political parties to which people
are appointed or elected to occupy include the Board of Trustees,
National and State Executive Committees, National and State Working
Committees among others. Part of the functions of political parties
include leadership recruitment and political socialisation.

Leadership recruitment function of political parties includes
sponsorship of candidates for elections into both the executive and
legislative positions. Critical to party nomination process is what
is generally known as party primaries which is an intra-party
election. When a party wins election, it gets to form government.
Out of the three arms of government, politicians populate two of
them, that is the Executive and the Legislative arms. But for the
doctrine of Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances, the
politicians would have taken over the control of the judiciary as
well. However, judges in Nigeria do not stand for elections as
members of the two other arms do.

Politicians across party lines are inclined to act with
impunity. Many of them prefer to jettison conventional rules for
rules of the thumbs. Whether in power or in the opposition, they
prefer shortcuts to due process. The rule of law counts for little
in their reckoning. A Friday, May 24, 2019 Supreme Court judgment
had stripped the All Progressives Congress of its electoral
victories in Zamfara State due to the fact that the party conducted
invalid primaries. This means the primaries were not in tandem with
provisions of Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended.

Ahead of the 2019 General Election, the same apex court had
barred the ruling party from contesting over 50 elective positions
– Governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and State House of
Assembly positions in Rivers State. This unprecedented act by the
Nigerian judiciary has drawn the ire of politicians in the ruling
APC who condemned the judgment of the Supreme Court.

It was like the judges are on a war path with the ruling APC as
over 20 out of about 27 Certificates of Return earlier issued by
INEC to newly elected individuals under the platform of the party
were withdrawn on the orders of the courts. I bear witness to the
fact that the judges of different courts who have ruled against the
APC may not have anything personal against those candidates. I said
this because several other political parties including the main
opposition Peoples Democratic Party have also suffered a similar
fate as did some of the APC members. Recall that Nigerian judges
had ruled against the PDP in Rivers State when the party withdrew
the nomination of Chibuike Amaechi in 2006 then as a governorship
aspirant, without cogent and verifiable reason, as stipulated in
the Electoral Act 2006.

Nigerian judges in a rare demonstration of courage have also
upturned the electoral victories of the PDP in a number of
governorship cases. Examples that readily come to mind are those of
former Governors Peter Obi of Anambra, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo,
Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo and Rauf Aregbesola
of Osun. These gentlemen might never have been governors if not for
the judiciary who assisted to retrieve their stolen mandates from
the PDP. But for the judiciary which came to the rescue of former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar, he would not have served out his
tenure as Vice President neither would he have contested the 2007
presidential election under the Action Congress. It was another
‘locus classicus’ when the Supreme Court ruled that joint candidacy
of contestants and their running mates ends at the polls and does
not extend to government. Hence, in 2007, we witnessed a divided
presidency with the President (Olusegun Obasanjo) being in the PDP
and his deputy being in the AC.

When some governors were trying to elongate their tenures
through the backdoor by misinterpreting Section 180 (2) of 1999
Nigerian Constitution as amended in 2010 to say that their tenures
start to count from the day they were sworn in after winning re-run
elections, it was the Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court who
in a landmark judgment on January 27, 2012 that correctly
interpreted that section of the law that any governor whose
election is annulled and is asked to be re-conducted, should he win
the re-run, his tenure will start to count from when he was
initially sworn in and not the time he wins the re-run. This
position was later reflected in the 2010 constitution amendment. It
was through judicial activism that Nigeria now has staggered
elections in which case governorship elections in Anambra, Kogi,
Bayelsa, Ekiti, Edo, Ondo, and Osun states now hold on different
dates.

Beyond elections, the Nigerian judiciary has been redressing
executive recklessness and legislative rascality. It was members of
Bench, judges, who have been nullifying many of the rash and
unconstitutional impeachments of many deputy governors and indeed
governors by the state Houses of Assembly. Among them was the
nullification of the impeachments of former Governor Murtala Nyako
of Adamawa State as well as those of the ex-deputy governors Sunday
Onyebuchi of Enugu State, Mohammed Garba Gadi of Bauchi State, and
Ali Olanusi of Ondo State.

I dare say that if not for the steadfastness and activism of
some of the judges and justices of our courts, politicians would
have rail-roaded Nigeria’s democracy into autocracy with the
likelihood of military intervention. Rather than lampoon judges who
demonstrate courage by righting the wrongs committed by
politicians, we should rather laud their yeoman’s effort and
encourage them to do more. Even though in electoral matters it is
the politicians that win and lose, they should learn the right
lessons from their electoral misfortunes.

Judges are not after the job of politicians but give these
landmark judgments in order to promote democratic ethos in our
political parties. I know for a fact that every judgment a judge
gives wins him or her friends and enemies alike, be they in civil
or criminal cases including election petitions. It is most
unfortunate that politicians from the other two arms of government
have been relentless in compromising the integrity of many judges
by offering some of them hefty bribes that are irresistible. The
political elite should desist from this ignoble practice and allow
members of the bench to carry out their functions without let or
hindrance; fear or favour..

Party administrators, seeing what the judiciary has done in the
aforementioned election petitions cases, should be committed to due
process in the management of their party affairs. It should be
clear from the electoral misfortunes of the APC in Rivers and
Zamfara that party constitution is subordinate to the country’s
constitution, the Electoral Act and INEC Regulations and Guidelines
for the conduct of the elections. Will they heed this noble advice?
Time will tell.

Follow me on twitter @jideojong

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!