Onueze Chukwujinka Okocha (SAN), a former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), spoke to KELVIN EBIRI in Port Harcourt on his expectation of quick dispensation of petitions under the new Electoral Act.WHAT are your expectations from the election tribunalsIt is to perform their assigned roles and functions. As you know, the tribunals are set up to deal with legislative and governorship petitions. The tribunals are drawn from high court judges. For the presidential election petitions tribunal, the first court of instance is the Court of Appeal and finally the Supreme Court will resolve the matter.We hope the tribunals will perform their functions to look into the petitions of those who feel aggrieved in anyway whatsoever about the conduct of the general elections, which we just concluded in Nigeria.You know that during the last dispensation, there was no time limit set for conclusion of election petitions. Most of the petitions continued to run until maybe some three to four years after the elections were held.Recently, the Electoral Act was amended and that went with the amendment of the Constitution. Now, from what I understand, election petitions must be concluded within six months. It is my hope that all concerned, the petitioners, their counsel and the tribunals will try and work as expected so that they can conclude within the time stipulated.There was also concern in the last dispensation about the movement of money and other corrupting inducement. Its also my hope that we will not see any of such occurrences in this dispensation. These are the expectations I have and we can only hope for the best for our country.Irrespective of the judiciarys sterling performance recently, it is dented by allegations of corruption.We have very serious concern about corruption. What we heard in the last dispensation was sordid. The matters are still being investigated because of the allegations that there were corrupting influences that affected the decisions of some of these tribunals. We cannot close our eyes to what we hear as rumours. There is no smoke without fire.Anything that indicates corruption in the judiciary erodes the confidence that the ordinary man, indeed, all Nigerians should have in the judiciary. The judiciary is one institution that should not have any corruption associated with it because it is the last bastion for the rule of law and the enforcement of law and order. For me, it is important that such rumours should not raise their ugly head.All those that may be seen as interested in corrupting the judiciary should best be advised to steer clear. The National Judicial Commission (NJC) is very firm and resolute in dealing with the issue of judicial corruption and I believe that no punches will be pulled this time around if any such incident arises.Remember the face off between the President of the Court of Appeal and the Chief Justice of Nigeria emanating from the Sokoto governorship election. People have written petitions again concerning the Osun State late delivery of judgment that led to the removal of a PDP governor. I think the same thing happened in Ekiti State.Reports have been coming to the NJC and as you can read from the news media, these matters are being given due attention. Remember the Osun one where they said a lawyer was exchanging text messages with the chairman of the tribunal. I am telling you from an authoritative source that the NJC has taken a position that those matters must be thoroughly investigated and due sanctions meted out to those who have been found wanting based on petitions received by the NJC.The same thing will be applicable to the new tribunals. I have hope that things will be different this time. I think it is a firm hope because all concerned know that the authority that is in place now will not take any issue of judicial corruption lightly.Is six months really sufficient to deal with electoral petitionsThere is nothing that is not feasible. I have appeared before some tribunals, indeed, tribunals of enquires, which are ad-hoc contraptions, constituted to deal with specific matters. So, with seriousness on the part of all concerned, I believe they will be able to deliver within the time stipulated.Most of these cases that actually go before the tribunals are unnecessary. Somebody who did not win up to 1,000 votes is in the tribunal. Somebody that his party did not campaign for political office and has no structure on ground is in the tribunal.I joked with one of my colleagues, who is operating one political party. Up till the time we held the last general elections, his case challenging the 2007 presidential election is still hanging at the Supreme Court. And I said to him, why are you contesting again when you have a matter pending in Supreme Court. He said he did not know how the thing would turn out; so, he just contested so that he does not lose on both sides.So, some of the petitions are frivolous and vexatious. I know with the time limit given, it will expose those frivolous and vexatious petitions and anybody who really has no basis to file petition will be bestadvised to save the time of all concerned.There are cases that are serious. I know that everybody likes to remember the Dr. Chris Ngige and Peter Obi case in Anambra State. Ngige had lined up close to 3,000 witnesses to testify. There is no way you can hear all those witnesses within six months. If all concerned show seriousness and the there are no petitions with ulterior motive of settlement for refund of their campaign expenses, we will have sanity in the system, and most people will know that truly this is a serious petition.We must be honest to ourselves. If somebody has won fairly and squarely; it behooves all those who contested against him to show sportsmanship and congratulate the winner. In any contest, especially in a political contest, when people have gone to vote, there must be a winner. If there are no serious reasons to complain about the conduct of an election, Nigerians should be best advised not to complain.But then, people will always want to raise an issue. I heard they use it as negotiating tool, by going to election petitions tribunal with the hope that somebody will come and settle them. That is not democratic. For me, if I win an election, then anybody who goes to court, I have no business settling with you. I will face him squarely at the tribunal and let judgment take its course. ISNT it obvious that within the electoral process devoid of fraud, election petitions will persistLike I said, it takes the will of all concerned to do what is right. When they do, there will not be any reason to worry about an avalanche of election petitions because everybody knows that someone had won fairly and squarely. And anybody going to challenge that victory will be seen as irresponsible because everybody knows that this is the man who won the election.Before the last general elections, there was some sampling of public opinion by public groups and even some media organisations. You can actually judge from public opinion where the tide is flowing. If yourelate it to President Goodluck Jonathans victory, you will see clearly that public opinion was swayed towards a fresh beginning.This is a president from a South-South zone and a candidate of a party that has structures in all the nooks and crannies of the states of the federation. His was a party that had been in existence and dominated politics for the past 12 years. Nobody expected that a party that was started barely one year ago would make the desired impact like the presidents own.You and I are Rivers men; I dont know if there is a Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) office in your local government area. There is none in my Obio-Akpor local government area. So, when I heard that the CPC was crying to the rooftops that elections were rigged in the South-South, I was like saying, where is this coming from. Is this not another reason to call INEC a bad name so that they can hang INECLets be honest and altruist about this thing. Politics should not be a do-or-die affair. Let us accept that the will of the electorate ought to prevail. When the electorate had expressed their will, those adversely affected,those that are not favoured should go back and do their homework and prepare for the next election.It is a matter of attitude of people to this thing. I saw transparency in the elections in Rivers State in which I voted. I saw that people voted after they had been accredited. It went peacefully in my own polling unit. And the report I got from other units in my own Ward 7 in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area showed that the elections went well.So, I am surprised that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is complaining about the governorship election in Rivers State, for instance. The APGA candidate was our former governor, but we know how late he started his campaign. Its the same thing with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).As I said, the tribunals are there. I was not in every polling station, but I know as a fact that my people overwhelmingly voted for a party called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Let us allow the process take its course. If those who are aggrieved can prove their case, of course, the tribunals will do what is right.My advice to the political class is that they should be good sportsmen. They should be democrats and accept that in any democratic contest, the will of the people should prevail. If they understand that, most of them will know that they have fought and have lost.Will there be a day when Nigerians will not challenge election results at the tribunalsIt had happened here, and I was very gratified when I heard some politicians, who lost elections, congratulating the winning opponents.Most glaring was the case of the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, who lost and within a day or two, he had congratulated the man who defeated him and he said the poll indicated the will of the electorate. So also is General Tunji Olurin, who lost the governorship election in Ogun State, the same state as Bankole. And I have heard some others congratulated their opponent.Yes, a day will come! You know these things are evolving. Nigeria is evolving. If you had been told that people would vote as compared with the last (2007) elections, you would say seeing is believing. But we have seen it: people actually voted and votes are counting. But the bad losers have left the complaint of people not voting to allegations that there were irregularities at the collation centres. People must always find a reason to explain in the tribunal. The collation centres were manned by men of integrity and I liked what Professor Attahiru Jega did by assembling former Vice Chancellors, former Provosts, and Vice Chancellors to be collation officers. There are people whose integrity means much to them. A man like the Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt will think twice before he will allow himself to be corrupted by unscrupulous politicians. The same with the Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, who was also a collating officer up there in the North; he would also think twice before he would succumb to the corrupting influence of politicians.These complaints for now will continue to arise but when people see that the system that has been put in place has integrity in it, they will accept that what is released as, indeed, the results of the election.We are evolving as a nation and as electorate. It will take time for things to stabilize, not in this (2011) election, and not in the 2015 general elections.But one salient point to note is that people are confident that the INEC we have now is not the same with Professor Maurice Iwus INEC and the people say it with pride. Remember there were internationalobservers. The Nigeria Bar Association also monitored the elections and the report we have gotten is that the elections were truly conducted in a free and fair manner. We thank God.What is the reason for the tussle for power in the countryThe reason is because we dont have an accountable, governance system. So, everybody wants to get into office and do what one likes. There are very few governments in the states, and the local government areas that are responsible and that actually deploy the resources available for the development of the particular area where they have jurisdiction.There are states that have received allocations from the Federation Account that cannot point at anything to show for the expenditure. We are happy here in Rivers State that we have seen the development that our governor has brought to bear in less than three years in office. The same thing with a state like Lagos, where people point and say yes, this man is spending the money here.But to some statesand they know themselvesyou will see nothing. Go to some local government areas; there is nothing to show the existence of government. So, we must have an accountable government in Nigeria and that will be the beginning of peoples power.
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