By
Ahmad Sajoh
As I listened to the learned justices of the Supreme Court deliver their historic verdict on the Tinubu, Atiku and Obi contest today 26th October, 2023 many things came to my mind. The question running through my mind right now is how much of our democracy can be salvaged from the inability of our players in the field to play according to the rules or understand the limitations of their self deception? The multiple litigations taking place all over the country are usually due to two factors. The first is the refusal of some candidates to accept that they lost the elections fair and square. The spate of litigations arising from such self deception stems from the penchant of litigants to pander to the goading of lawyers and supporters who insist that it is possible for the judiciary to overturn winners in favour of losers even in the absence of any shred of evidence. Many times evidence is concocted and presented without any probate value. Perhaps that is where the Atiku/Obi litigations could be situated. From the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal right through to the verdict of the Supreme Court on the Atiku/Obi litigations, their legal teams simply made money by leading their clients on their journey of self deception. Even a pupil lawyer knows that introducing new evidence at the Appellate level is difficult if not impossible. But the lawyers led their client on a wild goose chase from Nigeria to Chicago USA. As for Obi who came third, perhaps he would have had a case if he had gone to Court to be declared the second. In that case his defendant should have actually been Atiku rather than Tinubu.
Now that the litigation has ended at the National level, attention would be focused on what is happening at the sub-National or state levels. There are a number of state Governors and Governorship candidates facing litigations all over the country. All of the litigants are either challenging the credibility of the elections or defending it. But in the face of several upturns even in Adamawa State it’s hard to successfully defend the credibility of the elections. There is only one thing that can minimize such litigations and increase the confidence of the electorates. That is ensuring that the credibility of the election is protected and that our elections meet minimum acceptable standards. In many states of the country and at many constituencies, elections have been overturned as a result of litigations. The fate of many Governors is still hanging on the balance. Some have already been removed by Tribunals and are on appeal. Many are presenting very interesting scenerios. However the most celebrated will be the one in Adamawa State whose verdict at the Tribunal comes up Saturday 28th October. This is due to several reasons. The Binani challenge represents the closest Nigerian women have to break the glass ceiling in the gubernatorial contest in Nigeria. If she wins at the Tribunal, it will open a new chapter in the electoral contest by women in the country. For me personally and I believe for several others the success of Binani at the Tribunal will be a great inspiration for all mothers, daughters, wives and sisters. Secondly it will further expose the weakness in our electoral system where the umpire sometimes appear to have taken sides. If only the INEC chairman had acceded to Binani’s legitimate request for the Commission to review the elections after the first round it would have enhanced the credibility of the entire process. But he bluntly refused even in the face of glaring anomalies and a legal provision for him to do so. He appeared so partisan that he did not even respond to her request let alone act on it. It was indeed a low in the conduct of the election.
The array of opposition to Binani during the 2023 elections was multiple and even formidable. She fought all gallantly like the amazing Amazon that she is. She contested against a very strong PDP bouyed up by the Presidential candidate coming from Adamawa State. She fought an incumbent governor who was overtly desperate to retain power at all costs. She lost the support of a hostile wing of her own party the APC which openly supported the opposition as a display of open hostility to her candidature. She fought a group of mercenaries masquerading as Islamic clerics who were quick to preach sermons that Islam forbids a woman being Governor but does not forbid one becoming Deputy Governor. In their transactional pseudo-Islamic evangelism they totally forgot that a Deputy Governor is just a heartbeat away from being a governor. What a whapped money-induced misrepresentation of religious doctrine? Binani also overcame several other obstacles placed on her way by very powerful individuals and interest groups which included delays due to legal contests of her nomination and unnecessary hurdles put in her way by powerful individuals in Abuja the nation’s capital. Looking at all of these advantage supposedly garnet by the assumed favoured person one wonders why they still needed to manipulate the process in order to record some undeserved votes in order to be declared winners. These manipulations will become glaring at the Tribunal on Saturday. The facts will be separated from the conjuncture and the verdict will surely favour the facts.
Let it be known that in determining the outcome of the Adamawa gubernatorial contest at the Tribunal, all these factors relied on during the electoral process will amount to nothing. Only the probate value of the evidence presented will count. So those who felt comfortable encouraging all manner of electoral fraud during the election because the condition favours such should watch and see how those manufactured figures will fall like a pact of cards. Going through all the recent judgements on the 2023 elections up to today’s Supreme Court verdict, one is left in no doubt that the credibility of the elections will be the only thing that can save any litigant contesting the outcome. So on Saturday when the Tribunal gives it’s verdict, it will be based on the facts presented before it and testimonies of the witnesses called. It will therefore be blatant self deception to imagine that the Tribunal will look at anything other than facts of the matter in presenting their verdict. Power mongering and influence peddling will not determine the outcome. Media and public opinion manipulation will not influence the verdict. Only the facts of the matter will.
Usually we say there will be calm after the storm. But in the case of Adamawa State from now till Saturday the 28th there will be calm. But after the verdict will come a huge storm. We are already aware that some people have called for a protest to indicate disagreement with a verdict that has not been delivered. Some people have gone shopping for favours from several quarters. But will these favours be given? Certainly not by the Tribunal Judges. The only sure thing is that the legal arguments advanced will be the key determinant of the outcome. The documentary evidence presented before the learned justices will be the main consideration by the learned justices. And the witness statements recorded will be what will eventually matter. For some people the calm will continue even after the Saturday verdict, but for others a storm will definitely erupt after the verdict. And for Adamawa state? Well surely history will be made.
As always, I come in peace.
