The determination on January 31, 2024, at the Supreme Court of the gubernatorial petition by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP's) candidate in Adamawa State following the March 11, 2023, election brought to an end the various litigations which arose from the conduct of the 2023 general elections. It also brought down the curtain on the processes surrounding the elections except for the by-elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday, February 3, 2024.
We, at Daily Trust, note with dismay the high number of litigations that followed the processes of the elections. It was apparent that the culture of not accepting defeat at the poll is still very much with our politicians even in situations where it was glaring.
Sadly, the litigations were not only based on the outcomes of the general elections, but even from the primary elections from which the candidates emerged in their political parties for various positions.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, said that out of the 1,271 cases handled by the Supreme Court during the 2022/2023 Legal Year, 388 were political appeals, while 215 were criminal and 464 were civil appeals.
Justice Ariwoola, who spoke at the swearing in of new judges of the Court of Appeal in November, last year, said it was now an undisputed fact that Nigeria continuously ranked among the most litigious countries in the world.
He said, "Political cases especially, are taking a monumental toll on our dockets. Indeed, the times we are in are not pleasant, to say the least."
But more disturbing is the fact that the processes and outcomes of the litigations did more damage to our judiciary as judges came into direct contact with politics and some were openly accused of compromising their positions in arriving at their judgments. This was further complicated by the seemingly contradicting judgments from different courts on cases which appeared similar.
The 2023 elections also had an adverse effect on the economy as governance suffered. The politicians, especially those occupying offices, devoted the period to politics to the detriment of their primary duties. And even after the elections, a lot of time was spent moving from one court to another until the final verdicts were delivered.
For us at Daily Trust, the 2023 general elections have shown that not much has been learnt about the tenets and principle of democracy more than two decades since its return in Nigeria. Elections have often become war, with all sides deploying tactics to outwit each other. These stretched the resources and capacity of the electoral umpire, INEC, and the law enforcement agents in ensuring free and fair polls. In turn, it further created a divide among the populace, a development which has a negative effect on the progress of the nation.
We, therefore, believe it is now time for all stakeholders in the election process to do a thorough analysis of what transpired during the last elections with a view to correcting the pitfalls. This is especially required of INEC and the National Assembly to further look at the Electoral Act in order to correct any anomalies that might have been found. It is most pertinent to spell out in clear terms the provisions of the Electoral Act and remove all ambiguities so as to make the judicial process clearer and save the integrity of our courts. It is indeed sad that our judges are subjected to insults by litigants and their supporters just because of their decisions.
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It must be clearly stated that the onus of having credible elections is largely the responsibility of our politicians. As long as they view politics as a means of acquiring wealth and not rendering service to the people, our democracy will continue to wobble. The political parties must put their houses in order and adopt a transparent process in choosing their candidates. They should also not see election as a do or die affair.
We also urge all elected political office holders to put behind all election issues and strive towards delivering the dividends of democracy they promised their people.
Indeed, all that Nigerians want now is an improvement in their condition of living that is being threatened by insecurity and soaring inflation.
All elected officials must, therefore, rise to the occasion and deliver good governance.
