Supreme Court Must Savage judiciary’s Reputation By Affirming Yusuf As Rightful Winner Of Kano Governorship Election
By Abdulmalik Suleiman
All over the world, a lot texts and journals have been written by experts and academic institutions all theorising the essence and usefulness of the judicial arm of government as the veritable tool for safeguarding societal peace and harmony.
Academic documents that have been put out all clearly shows that the judiciary as a specialised branch of government is expected to play the necessary moderating role of interpreting the law to resolve disputes between stakeholders in a given democratic environment.
It is also supposed to use the same set of instruments to mete out punitive measures on errant members of the same society whenever they run foul of the law.
In carrying out these measures, it is envisaged that justice must not only be served but must be seen to have been served by not only those concerned but also by those in the wider society.
Hence, those saddled with the task of dispensing justice must at all times be above board and of little blemish. This is because they are seen as representatives of God, hence the appellation, ‘My Lordship’.
If one is to further go further, the task of performing these tasks places some form of burden on these supposed elevated beings as special segments of the society.
In the past, the Nigerian judiciary ranked amongst the best in the world with the country helping other countries in Africa and other parts of the world setting up their judiciary arm of government.
It is also note worthy to state that many of its personnel were loaned to these countries to function at their highest echelon as Chief Justices.
No longer the same as the nation’s judiciary has since relapsed into a state of odium and decay judging by reports emanating from the outcome of the numerous electoral disputations across the country.
One clear case for reference to highlight this sorry state is the case of Kano, where the judiciary has become a pun in the hands of the presidency and the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC.
The APC and the government that it has formed at the national level has been pulling the strings from behind the curtains to snatch the state from the New Nigeria Peoples Party, whom the vast majority of Kano people voted for.
Simply put, what the APC failed to get at the ballot, is what it is scheming to get using the courts.
It is generally acknowledged that politicians have this propensity to drag the judiciary into their political war plans, never in the history of the country had this been so manifestingly clear than now.
This is so because of the raison d’etat that the courts, I mean, the petition tribunal, Court of Appeal have given to award victory to the APC.
The court of the first instance with is the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal voided the election of Governor Kabir Yusuf on the grounds of not being a member of the NNPP as at the time of the election.
The so called 160, 000 unstamped votes were merely procured by APC and Ganduje using corrupt INEC Officers all in the name of upturning NNPP victory. And looking at the tally given to Yusuf and his party thus setting the coast clear for the APC to take over the reins of the state.
These positions were however affirmed by the Court of Appeal but an effort of the lawyers to the governor to secure the certified true copies of the judgment further revealed some underhand tactics that might have gone down prior to the judgment.
The nation was held in great awe when the CTC of the judgment showed so much contradictory statements in many paragraphs. While some parts awarded victory to Yusuf, some others gave it to the APC.
A thoroughly embarrassed Registrar of the appellate court had to issue a statement blaming the lapse on what he termed clerical errors and that those errors won’t be contained in a new one to be issued out to the legal team of Yusuf.
This is clearly a very messy situation for the judiciary which many hope would be corrected at the apex court in the interest of peace in the country as doing otherwise would spell doom for the country.
The way out is for the Supreme Court to knock off the two legs upon which the APC is seeking Jankara judgments to snatch power which it lost at the ballot box.
By this, the apex court must further affirm it’s position in past judgment by restarting that the parties have the sole right to field anyone for elective positions and that such rights cannot be challenged by non-party members.
The court must also hold that the disputed ballots are valid since they were issued by duly accredited officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to voters.
Anything short of this will not only spell doom for the battered image of the judiciary, it will also lead to a breakdown of law and order not only in Kano State but across the entire North.