Electoral tribunal verdicts and the future of democracy

The palpable fear arising from the declaration of winners in the 2023 general election as announced by the electoral umpire, INEC, the subsequent counsel for losers to go to court, and the outcomes from the courts today are documentary evidence that the Nigerian brand of democracy falls short of the spirit and content that drive democracy in saner climes.

The sheer pretense, connivance and dearth of political will to interrogate the fundamental elements that skew our democratic experimentations since the First Republic and the worsening outcomes since the Fourth Republic- posit nothing but a nation at home with ignominy, and until this shammed democracy is subjected to the acid test and grows organically vis-a-vis respect for its tenants, the business of governance is just a circus in Nigeria.

One of the fall-outs of the recent elections in the country is the coinage- You can go to court and All eyes on the Judiciary- these crept into our political lexicon like wildfire, triggering inconceivable interpretations that stretch from the intellectual to the absurd – and at this juncture, one cannot help but reflect deeply on that aphorism: the law is an ass, or is it that the law is an axe, with the kinds of verdicts emanating from the electoral tribunals across the country.

Before these judgements, expectations were intense, and very few sat on the fence- the ruling party boasted it had no case to answer, while the opposition was resolute that the evidence put on the table before the jurists would change the face of jurisprudence and birth new precedence that would enshrine and grow the much-desired democratic culture and ethos in the country.

It appeared the opposition did a fantastic job with their post-election campaign’s theme of eyes on the Judiciary- these are not good times to be a judge adjudicating electoral matters because the judges were also on trial like never in the annals of our immediate history.

All eyes on the Judiciary took a life of its own and dominated our national consciousness such that it deserves to pass as the phrase of the year because never in the history of this nation has this arm of government brought to the cleaners and public ridicule. But why has t it suffered this magnitude of disrepute, one wonders, and is the judicial arm an equal arm of government or a mere errand boy for the executive in the context of the doctrine of separation of power?

So far, the tribunals have invalidated some victories at the State Houses, National Assembly, NASS, and out of the 18 gubernatorial electoral cases adjudicated, two sitting governors are red-carded, but matters are proceeding to the Supreme Court. In all of these, there seems to be this air of discontentment and demand for more blood on the dance floor of Nigerian politics, and the angst in the atmosphere is palpable, demanding the head of the judicial arm be dragged to the guillotine.

From the First Republic, the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo challenged the outcomes of the elections till the 1983 presidential election, which was won again for the second time by Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the NPN and that election branded the mother of fraud, yet the Supreme Court held it legit with only Justice Kayode Esho being the dissenting voice on 26 September 1979 – the verdict for the first tenure. Since the Fourth Republic, all presidential election disputations have gone up to the Supreme Court except Goodluck Jonathan, who conceded to General Buhari before the final whistle.

The elections that brought Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari, and now Bola Tinubu are all alleged to be fraughted with irregularities on a massive scale, but at all points (while we wait for this present case), the Supreme Court cleared and legitimatised those victories.

Fundamentally, something is wrong somewhere because most of the judgements do not reflect the moods and realities on the ground, and again, legal experts are shouting from the mountaintop that the law is not emotionally-driven, it thrives on hard-core evidence, and where there is none or not sufficiently proven, mere articulations and excellence of speech are merely playing to the gallery and exciting the uninitiated in the temple of justice. Some believe that judges should be discretional, but medical doctors must follow the rules, or else the patient dies, if you do not get it, forget about it.

So, here we are as a people, confronted with the same post-election tribunal disorder stress and many are hoping that the Supreme Court will contradict the appellate courts, which has not happened in our lifetime and may likely not happen because it is either the legal teams of the oppositions/losers have not broken the code or organise their evidence beyond all reasonable doubts, otherwise, there is more to Presidential election verdict Nigerians are not aware of.

So, the problems with the outcomes from the courts are endemic and self-inflicted by our collective docility and the once-in-four-years placards carrying and mouthy agitations. As it is today, the judicial arm is a mere tool in the hands of any ruling government to frustrate the development of democracy in Nigeria, and it did not start with Asiwaju Tinubu and will not end with him even when the CJN was in the news shouting that this arm is not a toothless bulldog, but it seems they like bones too much.

Why should the Chief Justice of the Federation, CJN, be at the beck and call of Mr. President, and the State Chief Judges be the errand boys of the Governors? Should their budget be tied to the executive, and is immunity the sole preserve of only the President, Governors and Deputy Governors in a country like Nigeria, we expect any form of checks and balances where other arms of government are being hounded, harassed, embarrassed and thrown out by the executives because of control of state resources, and even at the last dispensation, members of the National Assembly voted against immunity for the Senate President and the Speaker.

The judicial autonomy is a mirage in our democracy, even when it was enshrined in the constitution but breached in practice, so their financial freedom and welfare remain crucial to the development of democracy in Nigeria, and this should be on first line charge from the national budget, but resisted by the executive for clear-cut reasons – CONTROL!

The French philosopher Baron Montesquieu will turn in his grave when he sees what has become of the doctrine of the separation of power in Nigeria, and we can put all our eyes on the justices or judges till thy Kingdom come, he who pays the piper dictates the drumbeats, and he who keeps the purse can also transmute into a Judas to keep our brand of democracy, crippled and worthless.

The beauty of any democracy is the rule of law, but the custodians of such ideal that is the judicial arm, are glorified errand boys, broken, insulted, disparaged and incapacitated by the deliberate acts of the other organs, then it is a long walk to freedom as Nelson Mandela mused.

We must rise to the occasion to demand absolute immunity for the Chief Justice of the Federal and States Chief Judges and total financial autonomy for this bastion arm of government – the Judiciary. Otherwise, let us remain with this democrazy (the demonstration of craze) and live with whatever verdicts coming from the courts!