Given the role of the third arm of government, the judiciary, in the evolution and sustenance of the country's current democratic experiment, Assistant Editor, Dapo Falade, went down memory lane to relive some of the judgments delivered by the various courts in the land as they affect national life.Without doubt, the geo-politicalentity, called Nigeria, since the first elections of 1922, has had a chequered experience with the ballot box. In the course of the political evolution, some actions were taken that, deliberately or otherwise, impinged upon the law and constitutional provisions of the land. It was in this wise that the judiciary has been playing a very critical role in the attempt to give the polity a solid footing in accordance with the tenets of democracy. Beginning from the First Republic, through the Second Republic and the botched Third Republic, as well as the ongoing Fourth Republic, there has been a consistent redefining of the democratic process through judicial interventions.The importance of the judiciary came to the fore at the peak on the 1962 political crisis in the defunct Western Region. During the trial of the former Premier of the region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, for the treasonable felony, the trial judge, Justice Sodeinde Sowemimo, in his infamous pronouncement which led to the imprisonment of Awolowo, had said, 'my hands are tied', a statement and judgment that had remained an epoch and reference point in Nigeria's political odyssey.In the Second Republic, a major intervention of the judiciary began with the declaration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) as the winner of the 1979 presidential election by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) on August 17, 1979, after the electoral body and expressed satisfaction that Shagari satisfied the provision of Section 34(A) (1)(C)(1) of the Electoral Decree No 73, 1977 by scoring the highest number of votes cast at the election. The main opposition group, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and its presidential candidate, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, however stoutly rejected FEDECO's result and on, August 19, 1979, filed a petition at the Presidential Election Appeal Tribunal- a seven-man panel of justices from the Supreme Court. He eventually lost and the 12-two third joker thus became a common parlance in the country's election jurisprudence.Other notable and controversial cases of that period included the impeachment of the then Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa by the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the illegal deportation of the former Majority Leader of the Borno State House of Assembly, Alhaji Abdulrahman Darman Shugaba by immigration authorities to Chad Republic in January 1980. The court was able to restore Shugaba's citizenship status by declaring that his deportation was a gross violation of his fundamental right to freedom of movement by the agents of the ruling government.During the aborted Third Republic, the self-styled former military President Ibrahim Babangida executed a military coup by annuling the June 12, 1993 presidential election, presumably won by the late Chief MKO Abiola. The ground for the annulment had been well laid when Chief Abimbola Davies of the infamous Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), financially bankrolled by maverick politician, Senator Francis Nzeribe, filed an action restraining the electoral body, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), from further announcing the results of the election. The late Justice Bassey Ikpeme slammed an order ex-parte, in a nocturnal ruling at around 8pm, barring NEC from further announcing the results. The Babangida military administration subsequently annulled the results of the election and placed the NEC boss, Professor Humprey Nwosu under house arrest.Following the intermittent crises and widespread protests engendered by the annulment, General Babangida stepped aside and handed over to the hurriedly formed Interim National Government (ING), headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan.But Justice Dolapo Akinsanya of a Lagos High Court, in a rare display of courage at a period when the country was going through one of its darkest moments, on 10 November, 1993, voided the ING and this judgment has remained an epochal decision in Nigerian case law. But no sooner was the ING declared illegal than the late despot ruler, General Sani Abacha, sacked Shonekan and assumed the mantle of leadership.It has been more than 12 years of uninterrupted democratic experiment in the country since May, 1999 when General Abdusalami Abubakar mid-wived a transition from military to civil rule. During the period, it is an indubitable fact that there has, indeed, been a direct relationship between the practice of democracy and the judiciary. It is not without doubt that, at times, those who are in control of the coercive and executive powers of the state are often tempted to brush aside the governing laws of the state and democratic practice just to have their way. The judiciary has often readily come to the rescue, but not always coming out clean either as it sometimes got bruised in the process.Notable of all the judicial interventions in the current democratic dispensation are the case that brought in Peter Obi of All the Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to power in Anabra State in 2006; the declaration, also in 2006, that INEC had no power to disqualify former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar from contesting the April 2007 presidential election; the restoration of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as the PDP candidate in the 14 April, 2007 gubernatorial election in Imo State (though he was finally subverted by the party); the declaration that Rotimi Amaechi was the candidate of PDP that won gubernatorial election in Rivers State in 2007, even without contesting; and the declaration, in 2008, that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Dr Segun Mimiko were the winners of the April, 2007 gubernatorial contest in Edo and Ondo states, respectively.In a celebrated case in 2003, the duo of Goodnews Agbi and Anthony Alabi went to court seeking to stop the then governor of Delta State, Jamse Onanefe Ibori, from seeking re-election for a second term in office. The applicants had gone to court claiming that Ibori was not a fit and proper person to contest the gubernatorial election in 2003, in accordance with Section 182(2) (1) (e ) of the 1999 Constitution, having been convicted by a Bwari Upper Area Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in September, 1995.However, the Supreme Court held that the trial court had failed to determine the identity of the person convicted by the Bwari area court. In effect, Ibori scored a major victoryat the apex court.Also within the same era, the judiciary also gave controversial rulings in respect of governors' immunity. A particular case in study was the one instituted by the late Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, who alleged that former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State made false declaration on oaths and he sought to compel the police to investigate criminal allegations against him. In its verdict, the Appellate court held that state governors did not enjoy immunity from investigation under Section 308(2) of the 1999 Constitution. The court however refused to grant an order of mandamus to compel the police to investigate Tinubu, adding that he could be investigated after leaving the office.Yet, another interesting case was the one instituted at the Supreme Court, which on 7 December, 2006, declared that Senator Rashidi Ladoja was illegally removed from office as the governor of Oyo State by a faction of the state House of Assembly. It was the court's intervention that restored Ladoja back to the Oke Oyinbo Government House in Ibadan, to enable him complete his tenure.The judiciary also played a very prominent role in determining the fate of most of the principal players in the 2007 elections. One of the most popular interventions of the judiciary in the post-2007 elections was the judgment on Anambra State, where the election of Dr Andy Uba was nullified on the premise that the tenure of Peter Obi had not ended, having been sworn as the governor in 2006.The biggest surprise so far appears to be the sudden change of baton in Rivers State Government House following the pronouncement by the court, on 25 October, 2007, declaring Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as the duly elected governor of the state, thus displacing the former governor, Celestine Omehia who was said to have been there illegally, having failed to participate in the PDP primaries shortly before the elections in the state.Another major outcome of the role of the judiciary in the democratic process was the eventual take-over of the entire South-West, save Ondo State, by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). With the court rulings, in October and November, 2010 that voided the elections, in 2007, of former Governors Segun Oni and Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Ekiti and Osun states, respectively, the path was clearly made for the successful incursion of the once-upon-a-time opposition party to become the ruling party in the zone after the 2011 elections.
Click here to read full news..
