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The judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), which last Wednesday dismissed the petition of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, and affirmed the declaration of the APC candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as President by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has proved, at least for now, to be the climax of the contentious presidential poll conducted on February 25. With high-octane reactions still trailing the verdict of the Appeal Court, many think, and with justification, that the decision of the five-member panel of justices was ‘judgement without justice’.
In affirming that INEC was right to return Tinubu as duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast in the election, the PEPC said that both Atiku and Obi did not successfully prove the allegations in all the grounds in their petition. Head of the tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsammani, said, “this petition accordingly lacks merit, [and] I affirm the return of Ahmed Bola Tinubu as duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The parties are to bear their cost”. The court also expunged 37 exhibits tendered by the witnesses from the court’s records. It also ruled that Tinubu’s alleged conviction in the United States and the issue of dual citizenship was “incompetent and liable”, and should be struck out. Many have picked holes in key aspects of the judgment, and have gone further to say that the verdict was the lowest level the judiciary has descended since the present democratic dispensation. Some say this is debatable, but it has opened a fresh conversation on our electoral process and the need to conclude all litigations before a new President is sworn in. The ease with which the court threw away most of the petitioners’ grounds of appeal, (unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise), it may be extremely difficult to upturn any presidential election petition in the country, no matter how flawed that election is seen to be, or how watertight the evidence provided by the petitioners might be. And that is a big setback for democracy in Nigeria. As one Twitter user tweeted after the judgment, the Appeal Court ‘justices did a better job defending Tinubu than Tinubu’s legal team did.” That seemed clear from the judgment that lasted almost 13 hours, perhaps the longest ever in any election case in the history of Nigeria.
For instance, by ruling that INEC can cherry pick either to transmit results manually or electronically, the tribunal has destroyed the only legacy that the Muhammadu Buhari government could be remembered for in our electoral process. Last Wednesday, in my view, was the day democracy in Nigeria died in darkness. The implication is that the Appeal Court has, most unfortunately, returned Nigeria to the old era where politicians could write election results as they choose. The immediate consequence is that we are back to the era of kakistocracy, which, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is, “a government that is ruled by the least suitable, or experienced, unprincipled persons.” It is a state of anything goes, a state of stupidity, lack of integrity. It’s an invitation to anarchy. Keep this in view as we move on.
The little gains so far made in our recent past elections, are about to be supplanted by the rules of the jungle. It runs against every grain of democratic process as provided by the Electoral Act 2022. Section 47(2) of the Electoral Act makes it mandatory that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) shall be used in all our voting processes. No other option. In the same vein, the Electoral Act makes it compulsory that election results will be transmitted via electronic means, not manually. INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and the National Commissioner for Voter Education and Publicity, Festus Okoye, before and during the presidential election, did assure Nigerians and the international community that the “commission does not have a discretion” other than these technology devices for the conduct of the elections.
Okoye in particular stressed that the commission had “spent so much time and resources on these devices, especially the BVAS, which, he said, was developed by INEC’s in-house engineers.
“We cannot throw it away. It shall be used in all the elections. We shall keep faith with the provisions of the law,” he said. The question is, did INEC over-promise or deliberately deceived Nigerians, the same way Justice Haruna Tsammani did promise at the inauguration of the PEPC on May 8?
Who says our politics is not fun to follow? For me, the greatest setback flowing from the court’s verdict of last Wednesday is that our democracy is now all about fulfilling all righteousness by treating people to the ballot box that you bring out only on Election Day. It no longer boils down to legitimacy and ensuring that the people have the right to demand for dividends. Simply put, our elections no longer offer valid choices.
Have you pondered to ask, why do the worst people seem to rise to the top of power and influence in Nigeria? Two young American authors – Riley Smith and Brian Paul – offer insights into why this has become the misfortune of third world countries such as ours. According to Smith, an immensely talented actor, writer and producer, worst people rise to the top of political power, because, in his words, “to rise to the top, you must do bad things. You need to lie, cheat and backstab people… It’s never clean”. He argues that we should not be surprised when such persons emerge in our country. We should expect “backhand dealings and skeletons in the closet.” He lamented that, very often, “better people tend to stay in the middle or near the bottom.”
Brian Paul, another scholar and contributing editor at The Atlantic, America’s flagship monthly magazine, and author of “Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us,” says that the emergence of corrupt people at the pinnacle of corporate and political ladder is a worrying phenomenon, but who can stop them, he asked. Brian’s latest book, titled, “How to Rig an Election,” exposes how this evil machinations happen. Read closely how the justices of the PEPC make a mockery of the petitioners’ case, how they upheld Tinubu’s ‘victory,’ you will get the point Brian and Smith have made. Ever seen a man declared victorious and there is a graveyard silence, a mourning mood, an ennui across the country? Nigeria is careening dangerously towards kakistocracy.
That’s what happens when a leader feels he has got enough power, when he thinks he doesn’t need anybody anymore. That’s when he begins to think and act in a manner that he is bigger than anybody, and can control everything. But power is transient. As historians will remind us, having a larger end has always been very important for political leaders than businesspeople. It’s all about the disappearance of conviction in both politics and the judiciary that has thrown up men without solid character and integrity as champions of equity and justice. This has done irreparable damage to our politics, governance and leadership. Any keen observer of Nigerian politics will agree that our politics and judiciary have become some kind of enemy of their own people.
Following the event of last Wednesday, have you asked why our present crop of politicians seem far worse than the previous generation? Is Nigeria cursed, or are the people the cause? It’s something historians will provide better answer to. But this is certain: today, nobody trusts politicians anymore. The trust deficit is at an all-time low. The verdict of the tribunal has even worsened it. The worst could still be ahead. I have heard some folks argue that Atiku and Obi should not bother going to the Supreme Court. That it could be worse there. They have their point.
However, I support the decision of these two valiant men to appeal to the Supreme Court, irrespective of what might be the final outcome.
I do not think all hope is lost in the judiciary. At the Supreme Court, there are things we will know that we didn’t know before. It is the deeper understanding of the inner workings of the eminent jurists, a nuanced picture of their thoughts, an insight about the nature of power, the complexity of ambition, democracy, and the role that the greater good can play in the election of a president, and indeed, whether one man’s ambition will override the greater and collective good of the country.
I know Justice Tsammani-led PEPC and Mahmood-led INEC may have ‘played’, deceived Nigerians, perhaps let the Supreme Court, chaired by CJ Ariwoola complete the circle. In their past political battles, Atiku and Obi, have been vindicated by the Supreme Court. I am reminded that this is a different Supreme Court, but we should keep hope alive. Our democracy needs it to survive.
