“Let justice be done; though the heavens fall.” – Lord Mansfield (1772)
The much awaited verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has come and gone. It was certainly an unfortunate addition to the league of controversial electoral jurisprudence of our time. This came after a never experienced legal fireworks between counsels to parties closely monitored and keenly-followed by citizens to ensure there was no miscarriage of justice. In its judgment, the tribunal roundly dismissed the petitions filled by Allied People’s Movement (APM), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the president in February 25 presidential election for lack of merit. In fact, all the grounds sought by the petitioners in the petition were dismissed.
What this implies according to the five-man tribunal headed by Justice Haruna Tsamani was that the election was free, fair and had substantially complied with the electoral law and the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. The summary of the judgment in a layman’s language implied that challenging the declaration of Tinubu as president was simply a waste of time – efforts in futility. The tribunal at the end imposed fines on the three parties for wasting it’s time and failure to prove their cases beyond reasonable doubt. The APM was handed a fine of over N13m, PDP and LP got over N23m and N47m respectively. The parties were ordered to immediately pay the fines into the consolidated account of the Court of Appeal at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) within 48 hours. Many hoped and prayed that justice will not only be done but should be seen to have been done.
The position of the Tribunal did not come to many as a surprise. Most Nigerians do not seem to have implicit confidence in the judiciary anymore. A lot has happened since 2015 where judges more often than not turn judgment on its head. Allegations of how judges manipulated cases to favour the highest bidder is in the public domain. Therefore, the answer to whether the tribunal lived up to the expectation is rightly engraved in the consciences of the judges themselves. It is also dependent on the views of individuals. A few complicated lessons were learned from the tribunal’s verdict. First, the tribunal has once again put the Electoral Act, 2022 and the Regulations and Guidelines for Conduct of Elections on trial. I will refer to section 38 of the the Regulations and Guidelines for Conduct of Elections in this discourse which says, “on completion of all the Polling Unit voting and results procedures, the Presiding Officer shall: (i) Electronically transmit or transfer the result of the Polling Unit, direct to the collation system as prescribed by the Commission. (ii) Use the BVAS to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), as prescribed by the Commission…”
While Section 48 avers that, (a) an election result shall only be collated if the Collation Officer ascertains that the number of accredited voters agrees with the number recorded in the BVAS and votes scored by Political Parties on the result sheet is correct and agrees with the result electronically transmitted or transferred directly from the Polling Unit as prescribed in these Regulations and Guidelines. (b) If a Collation or Returning Officer determines that a result from a lower level of collation is not correct, he/she shall use the result electronically transmitted or transferred directly from that lower level to collate and announce the result. (c) if no result has been directly transmitted electronically for a polling unit or any level of collation, the provision of Clause 93 of these Regulations shall be applied. Clause 93 states that, “where the INEC hardcopy of collated results from the immediate lower level of collation does not exist, the Collation Officer shall use electronically transmitted results or results from the IReV portal to continue collation…”
Still, the tribunal in its wisdom held that it is discretionary for INEC to upload and or transmit results electronically. However, INEC after the election and at the tribunal blamed technical glitches as the reason for failure to comply with sections 38 and 48 of its guidelines. The commission, therefore, should make its position on electoral guidelines clear for the umpteenth time. Nigerians should be informed on the exact import of the Regulations and Guidelines for Conduct of Elections. Is it a binding document to be relied on or not by the political parties and candidates in future especially in the upcoming staggered Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa elections? This is because the judgment of the tribunal will have far reaching implications on the above and other future elections. If the tribunal according to Osita Chidioka, “holds that the method prescribed by INEC in its regulations does not make it mandatory to comply then there is no need for opposition parties to participate in the upcoming elections.”
Second, a new twist to the actual status of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was unveiled by the tribunal. The tribunal affirmed that FCT is the 37th state of Nigeria with no special status conferred on it despite the decision of the Supreme Court in Obasanjo vs Buhari which gave it such. Recall that after the 2003 presidential elections, Buhari approached the tribunal to cancel the election because according to him Obasanjo failed to win in FCT. But it was resolved by Justice Lawal Uwais and others that winning the FCT is not mandatory but scoring 25% of lawful votes cast. President Obasanjo back then satisfied the basic requirements of wining 25% in 24 States and 25% in FCT in addition to having scored the highest number of total valid votes cast and was declared winner. The judgment also posited that if there was no election or cancelation of election in Abuja, the election will automatically go into a re-run regardless of satisfying other requirements. This alone validated the importance and exceptional status of FCT in our constitution.
In the eyes of the tribunal in 2023, Abuja is a state just like any other. It is high time the constitution was amended for Abuja to have its new status. The abnormal administrative status bequeathed to Abuja is even a deliberate oversight. Lagos was a state and the Capital of Nigeria before now. Why then should Abuja be subjected to the kind of ministerial administrative status as the capital of Nigeria? Third, the tribunal did not hide its personal bias on the fact of the law when it decided on its own to declare that the double nomination of Kashim Shettima was not intentional. Was that a position canvassed by Shettima himself? The court is a revered temple of justice. And in its hallowed chambers hangs the last hope of the common man. However, many Nigerians now think otherwise. Our courts have become desecrated temples where sins of injustice prevails.
Finally, the electoral process is fraught with so many technicalities which defile logic and also applied by counsels to circumvent justice. The constitutional certification required for elective positions is any school certificate. The issue of compulsory NYSC as canvassed by many should be optional. Public debates should be compulsory where certification and moral issues like fraud, perjury and others will be interrogated before people make their choices. Interpretation of the law should reflect exactly the intendment of the law. Election matters are vital to societal progress, thus, we cannot take them for granted. Rigging election and giving judicial credence to illegality is not new in Nigeria but we have to conquer the anomaly. Many do not expect pleasant judicial miracle to be done at the Supreme Court but for new and superior precedents to be set. INEC has to play fairly by its own rules, be transparent enough and remain the unbiased umpire. Truth no matter how it is suppressed remains sacrosanct. Therefore, applying technicalities in judgment to serve the political interests of some few cannot bury the truth. Is it fair to say, we are all casualties?
Sunday Onyemaechi Eze, a Media and Development Communication Specialist writes via sunnyeze02@yahoo.com and can be reached on 08060901201
