Daily Independent (Lagos)
15 December 2008
editorial
The belief espoused in The Prince by Nicholo Machiavelli that for the one who is elevated to power to be effective, he or she must be seen to have total control of it without fear or favour, may have worked for the President Umar Yar'Adua -led administration, when the justices of the supreme court validated his election as winner of the 2007 presidential election on Friday, December 12.
Atiku Abubakar,former Vice President and Action Congress(AC) presidential candidate and Muhammadu Buhari,former military ruler and Presidential candidate of the All Nigeria's People's Party(ANPP) had challenged the declaration of Yar'Adua as the winner of the 2007 presidential election by INEC at the court appeal but could not convince the court, so they lost.
But the hope of both presidential candidates to unseat Yar'adua suffered a major set back on Friday when the Supreme Court upheld the Appeal Court ruling which had earlier declared Yar'Adua as the winner of the April, 2007 presidential election.
The ruling of the Supreme Court is seen by many as the much needed elixir by the Yar'adua administration to begin to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians after having being on the drawing board for almost two years now.
Nigerians are however divided on the Supreme Court verdict, with many questioning the resort to technicality by the justices. According to them, this is a true reflection that the election was actually flawed.
Though, they may have accepted the Supreme Court verdict in its entirety, some still argue that the judgment forms a veritable platform for the re-drawing of the electoral law and reformation of INEC.
Bamidele Aturu, Lawyer/activist admits that the verdict remains abiding but argues that the resort to technicality shows that something was wrong with the 2007 presidential election.
"The Supreme Court of Nigeria, the highest court of this country, has spoken on the 2007 general elections. Although it has spoken with a divided voice, its word is undoubtedly the law. The judgment in my respectful view demonstrates beyond any shadow of doubt that it is unreasonable to expect the Supreme Court, nay any apex court in a class-divided society, to deliver a technically pure decision on an election petition.
"I do not question the competence of the justices, who are clearly some of the best in the Commonwealth, but the point that is being emphasized is that legal purism has no place in the determination of election petitions. One does not need to be a jurist to see this point, I presume. An election petition is not just about any kind of dispute. It is about a dispute that affects an entire country"Aturu stated.
Yar'adua was born on August 16, 1951, and obtained first and second degrees from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Chemistry Education and Analytical Chemistry.
He had been governor of Katsina State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before being elected president in April, 2007.
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