Eight months after the controversial elections of February 2023 which produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner, Nigeria’s Supreme Court has finally laid to rest the question of who truly won the election.
In an eagerly awaited judgment, the Supreme Court held that the duo of the Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party failed to prove their appeals.
The court also tossed attempts by the People’s Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar to introduce fresh evidence. For many Nigerians, it is a judgment shred of every iota of justice.
In Nigeria, the judiciary has long been on trial. As the country has dangerously tilted towards dysfunction, the judiciary, famously dubbed” the last hope of the common man” has borne the brunt.
Often caught between executive lawlessness, legislative recklessness and the mounting frustration of Nigerians, the judiciary has often faltered, showing costly cowardice in key moments.
It is also the case that those who use the judiciary for their nefarious aims typically abandon it in its hour of need. Today in Nigeria, in the court of public opinion where patriotism is either made or marred, the prevailing belief is that the Nigerian judiciary has become transactional. That this belief is not entirely the product of talks peppered with pepper soup and laced with palm wine is lent credence by the fact that judicial appointments in Nigeria have become something of a family affair.
It told a striking tale that In the uproar that followed the conduct of the election in February, INEC’s lame response was to tell aggrieved parties to go to court, as if the courts are equipped to sort the labyrinth of election litigation.
Many expressed skepticism that the grave manipulations that marred the elections could be discovered and denounced in court, and so it happened.
For everything the Nigerian Supreme Court has ever represented, recently, it has towered as a testament to Nigeria’s loss of face and fortune at home and abroad.
The synopsis is simple, as has been the prognosis of Nigeria’s painful demise as a country. What is clear is that Nigerians are not just suffering poverty of resources currently but also poverty of heart.
That courage is flowing out of many people only to be replaced by classless cowardice is as damning as it gets.
The decision of the Supreme Court may have painstakingly complied which each letter of the law. But to think that the customary finality of the Supreme Court achieved much would be a mistake.
Outside the institution which represents Nigeria’s highest ideals of justice, it is no rocket science to say that the Supreme Court cannot help the grating sense of injustice many people nurse.
A crucial presidential election was conducted. Many Nigerians claim that the election was manipulated before their eyes. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, urged aggrieved individuals to approach the courts. Some did, but were found crucially wanting at the Supreme Court.
What happened was that Nigeria’s familiar judicial shredding machine did a yeoman’s job.
The age-long delicacies of judicial proceedings came in handy to make it impossible for Nigerians to properly articulate what was done to them on February 25.
The reaction to the decision which nailed the coffins of the PDP and the Labour Party was telling. It was mostly muted, save for the now viral video of the president telling his appointees that their job is secure.
Their jobs may be secure, but is Nigeria secure? Is anything secure in Nigeria?
Is the judicial legacy the Supreme Court will leave for posterity secure?
It is important to remember where Nigeria used to be as a country and where it is currently now and how it got there.
For Nigeria to escape the hole in which it finds itself, it must show courage. This courage, as critical as it is only be shown by those who occupy positions of authority in the country.
Whether it is INEC, the judiciary, other arms of government, courage is needed to rescue Nigeria from its current morass.
The judiciary especially has a lot of work to do to redeem its battered image.
Since it has become clear that Nigeria’s descent into the doldrums has claimed the judiciary as one of its biggest victims, the judiciary has its hands full figuring out what to do.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
