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THE BURDEN OF THE COURT OF APPEAL POLITICAL JUDGEMENT
By Jide Ayobolu
Published: March 7, 2007
The recent judgement by the presidential election tribunal has continued to generate controversies
which have refused to die down. The judgement has now become a very sore point in the history
of the country that, one commentator after the other, have roundly condemned the political cum
technical judgement. It is in this regard that, the Transition Monitoring Group commenting on the
ruling of the presidential election petitions tribunal said that, “nothing happened at the tribunal that
justified the kind of judgement they have given to Nigerians. Local observers monitored the
election and found it was neither free nor fair. Foreign observers gave the same verdict that the
election was perfidious. The tribunal all over Nigeria had been turning in the same thing that the
INEC conducted a bad election, the worst of it in Africa”. Hence, one wonders why the justices
of the Court of Appeal would give a judgement without a justice.
Some people have argued that, if the Tribunal nullify the election that brought Yar’Adua into office
it would plunge the country into un-necessary crisis. But this a lie told by the devil, it is not
correct to contend that righting the wrong of the past will cause problems, it is in fact, glossing
over the wrongs of the past and putting up with them as if they are the norm. and, all those
shouting all over the place that both General Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
should not gone to the Supreme Court, are just doing so because of what they can get from the
government. They are bread and butter politicians who have no principles whatsoever, and none
of the can claim to be closer to the Yar’Adua family than Buhari and Atiku. So, why are they
claiming to be more catholic than the pope and trying to obstruct the course of justice? Some
have even argued that, if the Supreme Court nullifies the election that Yar’Adua will win all over
again since he has performed creditably well since he assumed the mantle of leadership.
But the greater issue they have failed to address is the fact that, will Yar’Adua be ready and
willing to take a second shot at presidential election? Will he have the stamina and good health to
go on campaign throughout the nooks and crannies of the country? Will he not collapse like he did
during the presidential campaign in 2007? And, what has he done since he got to power? Is it the
fact that he only works for three hours a day on the orders of his medical doctors? Or the
plethora of policy reversals that have the hallmark of his wobbling administration? What is the
state of energy sector in the country today, in spite of the so-called emergency he said he would
declare in the sector? Is ASUU not about to start another round of strike, what has he done? Are
medical doctor not about to commence another strike? What has happened to the fight against
corruption, if not merely using the rule of law slogan to encourage graft? What has he done in
Niger Delta? What has he done about the infrastructural decay in the country? Is it not because of
his many inactions that he has been referred to as baba go-slow or baba U-turn? Hence, there is
nothing and nobody that should stop the petitioners from going to the Supreme Court and seek
redress to the 2007 electoral fraud. If no justice is done, democracy in Nigeria will be a mirage
and there will be no peace. If no legal reprimands are meted out against the staggering electoral
fraud that was perpetrated, nothing will change in subsequent elections.
It is very disturbing and worrisome that, the justices of the Court of Appeal will, knock off all the
pleas brought before it, and see no merit whatsoever in any of them. It is very curious why the
judgement will commend the position of INEC and PDP to high heaven, while it lampooned the
petitioner’s claims. Not only this, the judgement quoted copiously from the submissions of the
INEC and PDP lawyers. And as Adamu Adamu rightly noted, “going by the delivery of the
consensus judgement, there was little trace of impartiality; it was given in an enthusiastic,
triumphalist tone. The court sounded more like it was into the manufacture of evidence for the
defence. For a number of reasons, that judgement couldn’t have been unaided, independent
conclusion of a court that was apprehensive only of the effect of its decision on the country…..
the implication of this judgement for the nation is that there may never be any election in future in
which the people will participate; because this court has held that henceforth whatever is done
does not matter. Once an election has taken place and the result announced, there is nothing on
the face of the earth that can be done to change what has been declared. What is right is what has
taken place; and every misdemeanor validates itself by the fact of happening successfully. People
know that they have no choice in the matter, so why should they bother to waste their time again?
What is without remedy should without regard”.
Furthermore, the Professor Itse Sagay reasoned that, “the tribunal did not make any effort or even
take steps to go through the evidence one after another and weigh them and see how the totality
of what was establish before the tribunals, that there was no free and fair election. The judges did
not do that, rather what happened was that the judges appeared to be too anxious and over zealous
to try to exculpate INEC to be able to declare that Yar’Adua can still hold on to the office of the
president. The judges were extremely eager to come to a decision that was favourable to Yar’
Adua. And in the process, they glossed over so many deficiencies and defects that characterized
the presidential election. In my opinion, the judges did not do a thorough job. They were over
anxious”. Also, Alhaji Lai Mohammed posited that, “our position is that the evidence was
overwhelming, that the elections were not conducted in compliance with the electoral act…..ballot
papers were not serialized. If that was established, is that not fundamental enough? How many
were printed, how many were used; how many were not used? If INEC admitted that it awarded
a contract for ballot papers but it had no serial numbers, what other evidence do you need? Look,
when you pass judgement on technical grounds, you are legitimizing corruption, fraud and
gangsterism! If the result of the April polls is not reversed, then 2011 election is doomed. It
means INEC can use toilet papers as ballot papers. Their interpretation of the electoral act amuses
me.
The gubernatorial elections in about seven states have been cancelled; is it not the same electoral
act? How can the Court of Appeal now turn round and say it wasn’t proved”? And according to
Dr. Buba Galadima, “they used the elevation of Ogebe as part of the conspiracy to deny Nigerians
justice. We have it on good authority that the recommendation for promotion was one part of the
deals. The appointment to the Supreme Court was to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of
former Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Belgore from Kwara State. Interestingly, there is a senior
justice of the Court of Appeal to Ogebe, and he is Justice Ayo Salami, also is from Kwara State
and presently serving as the Chairman of the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal in Jos, Plateau
State. He ought to have been recommended in line with the practice in the judiciary, but the
oppressors decided to reward Justice Ogebe from Benue State, who is number three in seniority,
with the appointment. You can see why the judgement was like that, and you also see why he
didn’t show up at the ruling, little wonder they were so generous with the judgement that they
were practically praising Iwu”.
So, there is no doubt that really the ruling of the presidential tribunal was compromised; it was not
the right and proper judgement. The judgement is not in tandem with the realities of the Nigerian
situation. This is why the petitioners should be commended for not calling out their supporters to
protect the kangaroo judgement, but choose instead to follow the due process by going to the
Supreme Court for further adjudication.
At this juncture, it is germane to make some concluding remarks, one, that those who ride on the
back of the tiger will eventually end up in it’s stomach, two, that when judges discharge and
acquit criminals, they stand condemned for falling short of expectation, three, ambiguity is not a
virtue in politics, actions of political gladiators must be predicated on principles and lastly, if the
justices of the Court of Appeal were sincere why didn’t they allow television stations to cover the
proceedings of the tribunal right from day one?
Jide Ayobolu writes in from No 19 Gongola Street, Garki 2, Abuja, Nigeria
By Jide Ayobolu
Published: March 7, 2007
The recent judgement by the presidential election tribunal has continued to generate controversies
which have refused to die down. The judgement has now become a very sore point in the history
of the country that, one commentator after the other, have roundly condemned the political cum
technical judgement. It is in this regard that, the Transition Monitoring Group commenting on the
ruling of the presidential election petitions tribunal said that, “nothing happened at the tribunal that
justified the kind of judgement they have given to Nigerians. Local observers monitored the
election and found it was neither free nor fair. Foreign observers gave the same verdict that the
election was perfidious. The tribunal all over Nigeria had been turning in the same thing that the
INEC conducted a bad election, the worst of it in Africa”. Hence, one wonders why the justices
of the Court of Appeal would give a judgement without a justice.
Some people have argued that, if the Tribunal nullify the election that brought Yar’Adua into office
it would plunge the country into un-necessary crisis. But this a lie told by the devil, it is not
correct to contend that righting the wrong of the past will cause problems, it is in fact, glossing
over the wrongs of the past and putting up with them as if they are the norm. and, all those
shouting all over the place that both General Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
should not gone to the Supreme Court, are just doing so because of what they can get from the
government. They are bread and butter politicians who have no principles whatsoever, and none
of the can claim to be closer to the Yar’Adua family than Buhari and Atiku. So, why are they
claiming to be more catholic than the pope and trying to obstruct the course of justice? Some
have even argued that, if the Supreme Court nullifies the election that Yar’Adua will win all over
again since he has performed creditably well since he assumed the mantle of leadership.
But the greater issue they have failed to address is the fact that, will Yar’Adua be ready and
willing to take a second shot at presidential election? Will he have the stamina and good health to
go on campaign throughout the nooks and crannies of the country? Will he not collapse like he did
during the presidential campaign in 2007? And, what has he done since he got to power? Is it the
fact that he only works for three hours a day on the orders of his medical doctors? Or the
plethora of policy reversals that have the hallmark of his wobbling administration? What is the
state of energy sector in the country today, in spite of the so-called emergency he said he would
declare in the sector? Is ASUU not about to start another round of strike, what has he done? Are
medical doctor not about to commence another strike? What has happened to the fight against
corruption, if not merely using the rule of law slogan to encourage graft? What has he done in
Niger Delta? What has he done about the infrastructural decay in the country? Is it not because of
his many inactions that he has been referred to as baba go-slow or baba U-turn? Hence, there is
nothing and nobody that should stop the petitioners from going to the Supreme Court and seek
redress to the 2007 electoral fraud. If no justice is done, democracy in Nigeria will be a mirage
and there will be no peace. If no legal reprimands are meted out against the staggering electoral
fraud that was perpetrated, nothing will change in subsequent elections.
It is very disturbing and worrisome that, the justices of the Court of Appeal will, knock off all the
pleas brought before it, and see no merit whatsoever in any of them. It is very curious why the
judgement will commend the position of INEC and PDP to high heaven, while it lampooned the
petitioner’s claims. Not only this, the judgement quoted copiously from the submissions of the
INEC and PDP lawyers. And as Adamu Adamu rightly noted, “going by the delivery of the
consensus judgement, there was little trace of impartiality; it was given in an enthusiastic,
triumphalist tone. The court sounded more like it was into the manufacture of evidence for the
defence. For a number of reasons, that judgement couldn’t have been unaided, independent
conclusion of a court that was apprehensive only of the effect of its decision on the country…..
the implication of this judgement for the nation is that there may never be any election in future in
which the people will participate; because this court has held that henceforth whatever is done
does not matter. Once an election has taken place and the result announced, there is nothing on
the face of the earth that can be done to change what has been declared. What is right is what has
taken place; and every misdemeanor validates itself by the fact of happening successfully. People
know that they have no choice in the matter, so why should they bother to waste their time again?
What is without remedy should without regard”.
Furthermore, the Professor Itse Sagay reasoned that, “the tribunal did not make any effort or even
take steps to go through the evidence one after another and weigh them and see how the totality
of what was establish before the tribunals, that there was no free and fair election. The judges did
not do that, rather what happened was that the judges appeared to be too anxious and over zealous
to try to exculpate INEC to be able to declare that Yar’Adua can still hold on to the office of the
president. The judges were extremely eager to come to a decision that was favourable to Yar’
Adua. And in the process, they glossed over so many deficiencies and defects that characterized
the presidential election. In my opinion, the judges did not do a thorough job. They were over
anxious”. Also, Alhaji Lai Mohammed posited that, “our position is that the evidence was
overwhelming, that the elections were not conducted in compliance with the electoral act…..ballot
papers were not serialized. If that was established, is that not fundamental enough? How many
were printed, how many were used; how many were not used? If INEC admitted that it awarded
a contract for ballot papers but it had no serial numbers, what other evidence do you need? Look,
when you pass judgement on technical grounds, you are legitimizing corruption, fraud and
gangsterism! If the result of the April polls is not reversed, then 2011 election is doomed. It
means INEC can use toilet papers as ballot papers. Their interpretation of the electoral act amuses
me.
The gubernatorial elections in about seven states have been cancelled; is it not the same electoral
act? How can the Court of Appeal now turn round and say it wasn’t proved”? And according to
Dr. Buba Galadima, “they used the elevation of Ogebe as part of the conspiracy to deny Nigerians
justice. We have it on good authority that the recommendation for promotion was one part of the
deals. The appointment to the Supreme Court was to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of
former Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Belgore from Kwara State. Interestingly, there is a senior
justice of the Court of Appeal to Ogebe, and he is Justice Ayo Salami, also is from Kwara State
and presently serving as the Chairman of the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal in Jos, Plateau
State. He ought to have been recommended in line with the practice in the judiciary, but the
oppressors decided to reward Justice Ogebe from Benue State, who is number three in seniority,
with the appointment. You can see why the judgement was like that, and you also see why he
didn’t show up at the ruling, little wonder they were so generous with the judgement that they
were practically praising Iwu”.
So, there is no doubt that really the ruling of the presidential tribunal was compromised; it was not
the right and proper judgement. The judgement is not in tandem with the realities of the Nigerian
situation. This is why the petitioners should be commended for not calling out their supporters to
protect the kangaroo judgement, but choose instead to follow the due process by going to the
Supreme Court for further adjudication.
At this juncture, it is germane to make some concluding remarks, one, that those who ride on the
back of the tiger will eventually end up in it’s stomach, two, that when judges discharge and
acquit criminals, they stand condemned for falling short of expectation, three, ambiguity is not a
virtue in politics, actions of political gladiators must be predicated on principles and lastly, if the
justices of the Court of Appeal were sincere why didn’t they allow television stations to cover the
proceedings of the tribunal right from day one?
Jide Ayobolu writes in from No 19 Gongola Street, Garki 2, Abuja, Nigeria