Imiewanlan Oyakhire
28 November 2008
opinion
A concerned President Umaru Yar'Adua, the other day, expressed his qualms over the dawdling pace of the judiciary in deciding electoral petition cases after Comrade Adams Oshiomhole's victory at the Appeal Court in Benin; a year and 18 months in court.
In just few months from now, it will be two years since the April 2007 elections and undecided cases arising from the elections are still pending in the courts. The courts' slow motion process and the repercussion to our electoral system and democratic value have also become the apprehension of several stakeholders.
First, since the Supreme Court's controversial judgment that ignored the period Chris Ngige ruled over Anambra State with a stolen mandate and gave Governor Peter Obi a fresh four-year tenure in office, several judgements have been given by the courts that follow this precedent. There have been cases where serving governors who lost in the electoral tribunal and in the Court of Appeal but won a re-election take another oath of office for a fresh tenure in office.
The implication of this is that we are going to experience a plaid governorship election that will spill to years. Whether a particular election experience is to be considered an advantage or disadvantage to our electoral process remains a debate amongst opinions. However, a most popular view is that it will give INEC the leverage to be able to deploy its scarce personnel and logistics that can guarantee an efficient election management as experienced in the recent re-run elections.
If lingering election litigations at the courts are considered problems that should elicit our concern, the proper ways to resolving them will be identifying their causes and proffering the right enduring solutions to them. One ready target for blame by some critics for these cases is the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC).
To these critics, the manner of INEC's handling of the elections led to the cases in the first place. Much as the way INEC conducted the last election may not be very perfect, but no matter how perfect any election may be in this country (we will always have politicians who will never accept defeat in their desperate bid to serve), there will always be litigations arising from elections.
This is part of the electoral process. One of the real causes we must blame for lingering electoral cases in courts is our defective constitution and electoral laws on which the 2007 elections were conducted.
The Constitution and the electoral law have been roundly criticised for their deficiencies in providing enabling regulation for the efficient conduct of the elections. Specifically, in this, the electoral laws failed woefully to specify time limit to decide electoral disputes before candidates are sworn into office. Petitions arising from elections and their resolutions are part of the electoral process. The 1999 Constitution and the 2006 Electoral Act should have been proactive in providing a satisfactory way of resolving this.
An amendment of the Electoral Act and the Constitution to be definitive on this issue would have been an easy fix to the intractable electoral petitions, but how this can translate from their theoretical provisions from the legal statues to practical judicial implementation remains a puzzle. Beyond the election petitions, our nation's judiciary has become so notorious in unresolved court cases. Courts are crowded with cases spanning over 10 years of trial process and prisons are replete with suspects awaiting trials.
There are not enough courts or manpower to handle cases and the facilities in the courts are so deplorable that they can hardly meet the exigencies of the time. All these culminate into a ridiculously slow judicial process that has gradually eroded public confidence on the judicial system.
The Nigerian political culture, where every candidate assumes to have won an election even before the contest takes place and would go to the limit of the provision of the law to contest it will always put pressure on the judiciary. The last election produced both credible and incredible 1,249 cases at the election tribunals across the country. Candidates who never campaigned for elections and parties without secretariats went to the tribunals to contest results they claimed to have won.
Electoral litigation processes start with the filing of petitions at election tribunals and INEC has always been accused of frustrating the efforts of some candidates in having access to election materials to file their petitions. This can slow down the judicial process or deny it. Effective and quick commencement of the judicial process starts from here; the electoral commission's cooperation and contribution to ensure speedy litigation process is vital.
Efforts must be by all stakeholders at addressing this predicament that has distorted our electoral calendar and has given room to criminals to rule. The Electoral Review Committee must look into and arrive at a workable solution to lingering election petition cases. In this consideration, the committee must look into issues raised by INEC in its official report on the 2007 general election. One of the challenges the commission faces "with respect to the retrieval of materials is inadequate storage space, especially at the local government and state offices of the commission. "...
In most of these places, the offices are accommodated in one or two room space". Providing INEC with befitting offices at local and state level will be herculean, financially. The significance of the commission to our democratic process has made it very imperative that they should have befitting offices. A good starting point is for government to look at giving INEC the abandoned buildings in majority of the local government areas in the country which the Babaginda administration built for SDP and NRC as party secretariats.
The electoral review committee should also recommend measures at reforming the judicial process to meet with the challenges of a changing and demanding electoral process.
Mr. Oyakhire, a public affair commentator, writes from Lagos.
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