By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa
The All Progressives Congress, APC, is fast becoming a house of
commotions, where things seem to have fallen apart and the centre
can no longer hold. Or how else do we describe the present
situation in Edo and Ondo States, where the ruling party is at
loggerheads with itself over its flag bearers for the coming
gubernatorial elections in those States? When a party in power is
waging war against itself, the Yorubas call it mystery (edi). The
crisis of primary elections has become the undoing of the APC in
many States. On Friday, May 24 2019, the Supreme Court rejected the
impunity of APC by putting a final death knell on the fate of all
its candidates in the National Assembly, Gubernatorial and State
House of Assembly elections in Zamfara State. In one fell swoop,
the APC lost all elections in that State, to the main opposition
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), no thanks to the internal
wrangling within the APC. The same thing happened in Rivers, Imo
and some other States, where the Courts annulled the electoral
successes of the APC, due mainly to the primaries of imposition,
violence and bloodshed, conducted by the ruling party. Presently,
there are not less than eight hundred court cases arising from
dissatisfaction with the primary elections of the political
parties. It has been some kind of windfall for the opposition in
States that should ordinarily have been swept clean by the ruling
party, all because of impunity. The APC is treading the same
ominous path in Edo and Ondo States, all over again, almost in the
same fashion.
Impunity reigns in any situation where rules are broken with
reckless abandon, where an individual is exempted from the
consequences of the breach of law or due process, and where a
person holds out himself as above the law and is thus immune from
punishment that should ordinarily have been the consequence of his
action. It is actually the bane of leadership in Nigeria, where
some of those who hold power in trust for the rest of society take
it upon themselves to impose upon the people, without giving a hoot
as to the effect of such, on the general psyche of the people or
even corporate governance. If people give due regard to the
processes established by law for general human conduct, then there
will be less crisis, less conflicts and indeed less court cases,
although some of my colleagues have corrected me that this should
not be the wish of any serious lawyer, since conflict in itself is
part and parcel of human development and progress. Now how did it
all start, in Edo State? The incumbent governor, Mr. Godwin
Obaseki, fell out with his presumed godfather, Comrade Adams
Oshiomole, the national chairman of his political party, the
APC.
It was a fall out of the usual contest for power between the
incumbent governor and the ex-governor, as it happened in other
States, even within the PDP. In this case, it became a game of two
power mongers, one wielding executive powers and the other
commanding national influence, both virtually tearing the party
apart. My own questions have always been these: who is advising
governor Obaseki? Why go this far just to make a point? Locking a
former governor out of the State that he once governerned, stopping
him from political campaigns, declaring him persona non grata and
going ahead to physically prevent him from entering the State, but
for the quick intervention of the police, or even requesting for
clearance before a citizen of Nigeria is allowed access to his own
home State. That was rather extreme, on the part of His Excellency.
Is it true that some House of Assembly members have not been sworn
in to assume their constitutional responsibilities many months
after they were elected by the people? And what do we say about the
Comrade Chairman, who portrayed somebody as incompetent four years
ago and he is presently busy trying to present the same person as a
saint? Who on earth changes a winning team? If Governor Obaseki in
2020 has no academic qualifications to aspire to be the candidate
of APC, how then was he screened to run in the previous election
that ushered him into office as governor? Did he just graduate from
school today? Are Oshiomole and APC not aware that the case of APC
gubernatorial primary election for Edo State is in court? If a man
is in court to challenge a process, do you then go ahead to screen
him out to spite the court case, where it was directed that parties
should maintain the status quo? What could have led a ruling party
to waste so much time, energy and resources on a process that is
evidently lis pendens and subject to judicial review? It was the
same scenario that played out in Rivers State, where rival APC
factions dragged themselves to court to stop the party
primaries.
The APC has enough precedents to guide it in the choice of
actions to be taken in relation to party primaries and internal
wranglings. I fully support the need to assert the supremacy of the
party in all cases, as indiscipline in any organization will spell
doom for its progress and advancement. In this regard, we had all
expected that the elders in APC would wade in to bring the governor
and Comrade Chairman to a roundtable. As it is presently, Governor
Obaseki has no choice than to seek his political ambition on
another political platform, the lesson being that you do not bite
the fingers that fed you, even though in this very case, those
fingers were all along infected and poisonous.
The Constitution in its section 221 has accorded the political
parties the pride of place in the determination of candidates for
any election. However, section 87 of the Electoral Act prescribes
that “a political party seeking to nominate candidates for
elections under this Act shall hold primaries for aspirants to all
elective positions” and that “the procedure for the nomination of
candidates by a political party for the various elective positions
shall be by direct or indirect primaries.” The Supreme Court has
now put the matter of party primaries beyond controversy, as a
matter purely for the internal affairs of the party and therefore
not justiciable. In the recent case of APC v. Lere, the Supreme
Court, on Friday, May 10, 2019, held as follows: “Candidates are
expected to obtain expression of interest and nomination forms,
present their certificates for verification and appear before a
Screening Committee. This is the stage at which the domestic or
internal affairs of the political party are not justiciable. The
court will not dabble into how a member of the party is screened,
or why a member was not cleared by the party to contest the
primary. Put in another way, before a member of the party is
cleared, the party has the power to disqualify their member, and is
answerable to no one including the courts. A dissatisfied member’s
remedy is to leave the party and seek his political ambitions
somewhere else.” Without any doubt, the fate of Governor Obaseki as
far the APC gubernatorial primary election in Edo State is
concerned, is for all times sealed. The question now is this: won’t
the party pay for this wrangling at the polls or in court? That is
if the polls will be determined by the will of the people and
judges are allowed to rule without pressure.
The various examples of impunity that permeate the APC is only a
symbol of its true character as the ruling party, as in several
other examples, names of candidates were cancelled, removed or
withdrawn at the very last minute, whereas in some more distasteful
cases, death certificates were forged for some candidates in order
to substitute them. In the end, the APC had more pre-election cases
in court than in the election petition tribunals. Where does this
lead us? Whatever affects the head will surely flow to the other
parts of the body. And if what we have witnessed within the APC is
anything to go by, Nigerians should very well brace up for greater
impunities from the ruling party, in more critical and fundamental
areas of our national life. And this goes to the credibility of the
coming elections in Edo and Ondo States, as no political party
would be so bold to embrace these manipulations and contestations,
if votes matter and if that party has no other means of claiming
victory in the general elections.
But in all of these, President Buhari, who is by status the
official leader of the APC, is the overall winner and loser. In
Rivers State, the matter went up to the Supreme Court and he never
interfered in the process at all, at least openly and to our
knowledge. Similarly in Zamfara State, he didn’t show any sign of
much personal concern, in the judicial process that eventually
buried the fate of his own party, other than to cancel his campaign
rally in the State. He has maintained the same neutrality in Edo
State. But there is a little snag. How can the President be
parading credentials that his own party does not possess? How come
he has not been able to influence his own party to respect the rule
of law and due process? We all wait on the APC for the answers.
BY-LINE
The last piece on Administration of Estates Law 2 has generated
some needless controversy between two lawyers. I had received and
responded to a post from Bamofin Kushimo, in response to the first
article. It has since turned out that Mr. Olajide Olushola
Olajide’s views on the subject were wrongly attributed to Bamofin
Kushimo, who posted the same without giving credit to the real
author. Mr. Olajide has promised to render his detailed response to
the subject, which will be published. I hereby assure Mr. Olajide
that the error was not deliberate, as myself and the management of
Nigerian Tribune were not in a position to know, at the time of
publication, that those views were not the original thoughts of
Bamofin Kushimo, who also may have posted them inadvertently or
forgot to acknowledge the real author. I do hereby render my
profound apology to Mr. Olajide, while urging him to avail me his
response to both articles.
By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa
The All Progressives Congress, APC, is fast becoming a house of
commotions, where things seem to have fallen apart and the centre
can no longer hold. Or how else do we describe the present
situation in Edo and Ondo States, where the ruling party is at
loggerheads with itself over its flag bearers for the coming
gubernatorial elections in those States? When a party in power is
waging war against itself, the Yorubas call it mystery (edi). The
crisis of primary elections has become the undoing of the APC in
many States. On Friday, May 24 2019, the Supreme Court rejected the
impunity of APC by putting a final death knell on the fate of all
its candidates in the National Assembly, Gubernatorial and State
House of Assembly elections in Zamfara State. In one fell swoop,
the APC lost all elections in that State, to the main opposition
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), no thanks to the internal
wrangling within the APC. The same thing happened in Rivers, Imo
and some other States, where the Courts annulled the electoral
successes of the APC, due mainly to the primaries of imposition,
violence and bloodshed, conducted by the ruling party. Presently,
there are not less than eight hundred court cases arising from
dissatisfaction with the primary elections of the political
parties. It has been some kind of windfall for the opposition in
States that should ordinarily have been swept clean by the ruling
party, all because of impunity. The APC is treading the same
ominous path in Edo and Ondo States, all over again, almost in the
same fashion.
Impunity reigns in any situation where rules are broken with
reckless abandon, where an individual is exempted from the
consequences of the breach of law or due process, and where a
person holds out himself as above the law and is thus immune from
punishment that should ordinarily have been the consequence of his
action. It is actually the bane of leadership in Nigeria, where
some of those who hold power in trust for the rest of society take
it upon themselves to impose upon the people, without giving a hoot
as to the effect of such, on the general psyche of the people or
even corporate governance. If people give due regard to the
processes established by law for general human conduct, then there
will be less crisis, less conflicts and indeed less court cases,
although some of my colleagues have corrected me that this should
not be the wish of any serious lawyer, since conflict in itself is
part and parcel of human development and progress. Now how did it
all start, in Edo State? The incumbent governor, Mr. Godwin
Obaseki, fell out with his presumed godfather, Comrade Adams
Oshiomole, the national chairman of his political party, the
APC.
It was a fall out of the usual contest for power between the
incumbent governor and the ex-governor, as it happened in other
States, even within the PDP. In this case, it became a game of two
power mongers, one wielding executive powers and the other
commanding national influence, both virtually tearing the party
apart. My own questions have always been these: who is advising
governor Obaseki? Why go this far just to make a point? Locking a
former governor out of the State that he once governerned, stopping
him from political campaigns, declaring him persona non grata and
going ahead to physically prevent him from entering the State, but
for the quick intervention of the police, or even requesting for
clearance before a citizen of Nigeria is allowed access to his own
home State. That was rather extreme, on the part of His Excellency.
Is it true that some House of Assembly members have not been sworn
in to assume their constitutional responsibilities many months
after they were elected by the people? And what do we say about the
Comrade Chairman, who portrayed somebody as incompetent four years
ago and he is presently busy trying to present the same person as a
saint? Who on earth changes a winning team? If Governor Obaseki in
2020 has no academic qualifications to aspire to be the candidate
of APC, how then was he screened to run in the previous election
that ushered him into office as governor? Did he just graduate from
school today? Are Oshiomole and APC not aware that the case of APC
gubernatorial primary election for Edo State is in court? If a man
is in court to challenge a process, do you then go ahead to screen
him out to spite the court case, where it was directed that parties
should maintain the status quo? What could have led a ruling party
to waste so much time, energy and resources on a process that is
evidently lis pendens and subject to judicial review? It was the
same scenario that played out in Rivers State, where rival APC
factions dragged themselves to court to stop the party
primaries.
The APC has enough precedents to guide it in the choice of
actions to be taken in relation to party primaries and internal
wranglings. I fully support the need to assert the supremacy of the
party in all cases, as indiscipline in any organization will spell
doom for its progress and advancement. In this regard, we had all
expected that the elders in APC would wade in to bring the governor
and Comrade Chairman to a roundtable. As it is presently, Governor
Obaseki has no choice than to seek his political ambition on
another political platform, the lesson being that you do not bite
the fingers that fed you, even though in this very case, those
fingers were all along infected and poisonous.
The Constitution in its section 221 has accorded the political
parties the pride of place in the determination of candidates for
any election. However, section 87 of the Electoral Act prescribes
that “a political party seeking to nominate candidates for
elections under this Act shall hold primaries for aspirants to all
elective positions” and that “the procedure for the nomination of
candidates by a political party for the various elective positions
shall be by direct or indirect primaries.” The Supreme Court has
now put the matter of party primaries beyond controversy, as a
matter purely for the internal affairs of the party and therefore
not justiciable. In the recent case of APC v. Lere, the Supreme
Court, on Friday, May 10, 2019, held as follows: “Candidates are
expected to obtain expression of interest and nomination forms,
present their certificates for verification and appear before a
Screening Committee. This is the stage at which the domestic or
internal affairs of the political party are not justiciable. The
court will not dabble into how a member of the party is screened,
or why a member was not cleared by the party to contest the
primary. Put in another way, before a member of the party is
cleared, the party has the power to disqualify their member, and is
answerable to no one including the courts. A dissatisfied member’s
remedy is to leave the party and seek his political ambitions
somewhere else.” Without any doubt, the fate of Governor Obaseki as
far the APC gubernatorial primary election in Edo State is
concerned, is for all times sealed. The question now is this: won’t
the party pay for this wrangling at the polls or in court? That is
if the polls will be determined by the will of the people and
judges are allowed to rule without pressure.
The various examples of impunity that permeate the APC is only a
symbol of its true character as the ruling party, as in several
other examples, names of candidates were cancelled, removed or
withdrawn at the very last minute, whereas in some more distasteful
cases, death certificates were forged for some candidates in order
to substitute them. In the end, the APC had more pre-election cases
in court than in the election petition tribunals. Where does this
lead us? Whatever affects the head will surely flow to the other
parts of the body. And if what we have witnessed within the APC is
anything to go by, Nigerians should very well brace up for greater
impunities from the ruling party, in more critical and fundamental
areas of our national life. And this goes to the credibility of the
coming elections in Edo and Ondo States, as no political party
would be so bold to embrace these manipulations and contestations,
if votes matter and if that party has no other means of claiming
victory in the general elections.
But in all of these, President Buhari, who is by status the
official leader of the APC, is the overall winner and loser. In
Rivers State, the matter went up to the Supreme Court and he never
interfered in the process at all, at least openly and to our
knowledge. Similarly in Zamfara State, he didn’t show any sign of
much personal concern, in the judicial process that eventually
buried the fate of his own party, other than to cancel his campaign
rally in the State. He has maintained the same neutrality in Edo
State. But there is a little snag. How can the President be
parading credentials that his own party does not possess? How come
he has not been able to influence his own party to respect the rule
of law and due process? We all wait on the APC for the answers.
BY-LINE
The last piece on Administration of Estates Law 2 has generated
some needless controversy between two lawyers. I had received and
responded to a post from Bamofin Kushimo, in response to the first
article. It has since turned out that Mr. Olajide Olushola
Olajide’s views on the subject were wrongly attributed to Bamofin
Kushimo, who posted the same without giving credit to the real
author. Mr. Olajide has promised to render his detailed response to
the subject, which will be published. I hereby assure Mr. Olajide
that the error was not deliberate, as myself and the management of
Nigerian Tribune were not in a position to know, at the time of
publication, that those views were not the original thoughts of
Bamofin Kushimo, who also may have posted them inadvertently or
forgot to acknowledge the real author. I do hereby render my
profound apology to Mr. Olajide, while urging him to avail me his
response to both articles.