Reply #18: Nigeria: Will the Court Ever Void a Presidential Election in Nigeria?

[Mnemosyne]

Nigeria: Will the Court Ever Void a Presidential Election in Nigeria?

Vanguard (Lagos)

OPINION
11 April 2008
Posted to the web 11 April 2008

Jiti Ogunye
Lagos

By the unprecedented live telecast of the delivery by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, of the judgment in the consolidated petitions of General Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, respectively of the ANPP and AC, against the election of President Umar Musa Yar' Adua, on Tuesday 26th of February 2008, and the extensive reportage of the judgment in the print media, the general public has been able to grasp the details of the judgment.

However, from a case review angle, it may be too early to do a thorough "finding by finding, and holding by holding" analysis of the judgment. This is because the judgment (both the lead and concurring) is not yet available in the law reports for a careful and punctilious digestion. All the same, given what is known of the judgment, from the broadcast and print media report, it is safe to do its concise review, pending a more elaborate review when the judgment is published in the law reports.

Overall, it is our considered view that the judgment of the Court of Appeal, acting as the Tribunal, as erudite as it certainly is, and as obvious as the industry that went into its preparation is, is an unfortunate reversal of the modest progress that has been recorded in recent time in election petition cases under Nigerian law.

The judgment is dogmatically legalistic. It merely followed in the footsteps of the Awolowo v Shagari, Falae v Obasanjo and Buhari v Obasanjo precedents, without heeding the age long adjudicatory admonition that in the application of judicial precedents and principles of law, facts of cases, which are distinguishable, should not be treated as one and the same. In Buhari v Obasanjo( 2005), 13 NWLR. Pt. 941, 1 at Pp 308-309, paras G-C; 311,and paras. D-E, the Supreme Court had held that "an order of cancellation or nullification of the Presidential election should not be made by a tribunal or court without clear, positive credible and overwhelming evidence led to the effect that the entire election was totally flawed nationwide; and that the conduct of the election was in breach of major and very fundamental provisions of the Electoral Act. In the instant case, although the appellants sought the setting aside of the entire election on the grounds inter alia of violence, intimidation and breach as of the Electoral Act, they failed to show who was responsible for the violence and intimidation, or how the alleged breach as of the Electoral Act affected the entire outcome of the election, including the result accredited to the 1st Appellant"

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