By Chima Okpan
You will not be wrong if you say that the Supreme Court has an Imo problem. And that problem needs to be resolved in the interest of peace and justice.
It all started on December 20, 2019. On this day, the court entered a well-considered judgment on the governorship election that took place in Imo State on March 9, 2019. The judgment bordered on the non-qualification of a certain Uche Nwosu to stand for that election. The said Nwosu was nominated by two different political parties- the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Action Alliance (AA) – for the same election. This amounted to double nomination, an electoral infraction that both the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 frowned upon. Based on this, the court disqualified Nwosu from the election. The wider implication of this was that the two political parties whose tickets he held for the election, that is, the APC and the AA, had no candidate in that election.
The Supreme Court was right in its judgment. Even a layman can see the impropriety in the double nomination of Nwosu. But rather than stay on the right track, the court fought shy by not making consequential pronouncements that would have put paid to the matter. Instead, it created a problem that has now lingered all because it failed to give effect to its judgment.
The same court further compounded the problem it created when it, on January 14, 2020 entered another judgment on the same election which contradicted the earlier one. In the second judgment, the court acted as if it forgot its earlier judgment when it recognized someone else, Hope Uzodinma, as the candidate of the APC in that same election. In other words, the Supreme Court was saying that two candidates held the ticket of one political party in the same election. That is absurd. The court’s position has no basis in logic and common sense. It was anchored on nothing. Then again, the court took its wrong position to a ludicrous height when it pronounced further that the man who did not qualify to be called a candidate based on the Court’s earlier judgment won the election. This is the bone of contention. That is what has left Imo in quandary for nearly four years.
But there appears to be a silver lining at the end of the tunnel. The court has fixed December 5, 2023 to revisit the matter based on the appeals lodged by the Peoples Democratic Party and the Action Peoples Party. The parties are asking the Supreme Court to give effect to its declaration that “a political party is not capable of sponsoring two candidates for the same office in the same election”. This is what the Supreme Court will be adjudicating upon on December 5. The expectation from lovers and promoters of the democratic culture is that the court should free itself from the contradictory and absurd judgments and by so doing, return Imo State to the path of fairness and justice.
In fact, the Imo scenario was succinctly captured by a public affairs analyst, Charles Nwanaga , in a recent article where he held as follows.
“Everybody that has respect for democracy and rule of law is looking forward to this date. It is hoped that the court will, on this day, free Imo from all the cobwebs that have been clogging its governorship since 2019.
In the light of the foregoing, will anybody say that the governorship election of November 11 in Imo state served any purpose? One can say without fear of contradiction that it did not. Apart from being a colossal waste in terms of the resources and time deployed to the exercise, the election was a poor advertisement of what an election should not be.
Before November 11, the people of Imo state did not show in any way that an election was afoot. The atmosphere was subdued. There was no excitement. There was no expectation of something new. The air of despondency was most palpable on the day of the election. There was large scale voter apathy, the type never witnessed before in the history of elections in the state.
The poor voter turnout spoke volumes. It showed that the people of the state were interested in anything but the election. Rather than go to election venues, youths chose to play football on empty streets. The elderly either stayed indoors or at best, derided the exercise in their quiet confines.
To make the situation worse, thuggery, brigandage, vote buying, ballot box snatching and other electoral malpractices dogged the exercise. Votes never counted as those who filed out to vote never saw any result sheets. It was an elaborate charade. The people of Imo state regret it all.
But they have a consolation. The Supreme Court is set to right all the wrongs that have dogged Imo governorship in the past. The people of Imo state and all lovers of democracy are looking forward to December 5. It is hoped that the Supreme Court will, on this day, restore normalcy to Imo governorship. Our eyes are focused on this.”
Indeed, the Supreme Court can use Imo as the pedestal on which it can ride in the journey of self-cleansing. The reputation of the judiciary as the last hope of the common is fast fading away in Nigeria. People have had cause, in recent years, to sneer and jeer at their Lordships because of judgments that are patently unjust and unjustifiable. Our courts have, as a matter of fact, become objects and subjects of derisive banters and coarse jokes. Some have argued that their Lordships cannot be the only sane people in a country of the weird and the corrupt. That may be so. But someone must save the country. The history of the world is replete with the story of patriots who dare to differ from the madding crowd. Nigerians are looking forward to men and women of integrity who can give the judiciary a new image.
Before now, the expectation has always been that the Supreme Court will come to the rescue when the lower courts err in law. But the apex court has, lately, joined the ignoble fray. It dispenses justice in a way that gives it away as pandering to the highest bidder. Law and legality appear to have been relegated to the background. This slide into disrepute by the courts must be halted. This process of rebirth can begin if the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, sets the tone. It has to live by example. It has to make the lower courts look inwards and begin to rely on law and not politics in its judgments. December 5, 2023 may just be the day to begin the cleansing process. Let the Supreme Court live above board.
• Okpan is of the Neo Africana Media Centre.