Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s former president, says recent court judgments given on political cases are concerning and turning the nation’s democracy upside down.
Jonathan said this at the 67th birthday celebration of Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in Abuja on Friday, describing some of those judgments as a “cone being turned upside down.”
“The way things are going in this country, especially listening to the judgments being given regarding political cases, we are beginning to see that democracy in Nigeria is like a cone that is being turned upside down.
“And if a cone is turned upside down, it cannot be stable and it will fall at the slightest perturbation. When I listened to some senior lawyers like Olisa Agbakoba making comments on some Supreme Court’s judgments, I felt very sad that the country has got to that level.”
He stressed the need for lawyers and judges to be insulated from politics in order to nurture Nigeria’s democracy and allow it to mature.
“If our democracy will endure, people, both at the Bar and the Bench, should not be carried away by political influence. That is the only way we can stabilise the political process. I know the lawyers enjoy it because after elections there is always an avalanche of litigations, because it is like Christmas for lawyers.
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“But in most other countries, people don’t go to court, but in Nigeria, pre-election matters and post-election matters fill all the courts and it does not give a good sign for democracy.”
He wondered why courts have allowed ward chairmen to expel national chairmen of political parties, noting that it is an anomaly.
“There is a particular judgment that has been haunting me and I need to mention that, luckily, I am not a lawyer. I am saying that from a layman view. It (the judgment) simply turned the cone upside down and if the courts don’t look back into this case, it will create so much instability in the political system that it would affect all of us.
“Those who would have succeeded, their victory song will not last long because we will all be victims. Where the court says a ward chairman can expel a national chairman of a political party. This is not in line with natural justice. The law is to control human behaviour and human behaviour must follow how God created systems.
“You cannot tell me that the head of department in a university, for example, can expel the vice chancellor. So, how can the Nigerian law tell me that a ward chairman can expel a national officer of a political party?
“And, since that judgment has been given, as at today, it has created all kinds of instability in the party. PDP is in crisis because of that judgment. APC, at a time, was also into crisis because of that judgment.
“I am not looking at it from a legal perspective, because I don’t know anything about the law. But when I look at how nature works, I have never seen a system where its sub-unit can discipline the top.”
“For the PDP exactly, in the constitution of the PDP, if you are a national officer, even your state cannot discipline you, not to talk about a ward officer, who is not a member of the NEC, the National Executive Council.
“And we are saying that a ward chairman of a party can suspend and expel the national chairman of a political party. I am appealing with the Supreme Court to revisit their judgment because that judgment has turned the cone upside down and the political process, the democracy, is wobbling.”
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