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Nigerians demand more action from Yar'Adua
The confirmation of the victory of President Umaru Yar’Adua last Friday by the Supreme Court may be the beginning of another battle for his administration that has been under heavy criticism for its sluggishness in the running of the affairs of the country since it took over mantle of leadership in May 2007.
Legal wrangling so far over the election has undermined Yar'Adua's first 18 months in office but Government supporters say this result will free the President to deal with the challenges facing the country. But critics say that he is incapable of dealing with these problems as they point out the glacial pace the government deals with basic functions like naming Ministers, and persistent fears about the President's state of health.
With the court case behind him, Nigerians will now begin to breath down on the neck of the Government that has slowed down the pace of development since the PDP Government came on board. The administration will now face the court of pubic opinion over its poor performance as it has seemed to have run out of excuses.
The Supreme Court panel headed by Justice Kutigi in its final judgment rejected the legal challenges to Yar’Adua’s election in 2007 following its indefinite reservation of judgment on October 23, 2008 in the appeals filed by Opposition leaders, Atiku Abubakar of Action Congress [AC] and his All Nigeria Peoples Party,ANPP, cunterpart, General Muhammadu Buhari [rtd] against the election of Yar’Adua stating that lawyers had not provided strong enough evidence to overturn the official result.
The Court of Appeal serving as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had upheld the election of the President. In their separate appeals, Buhari and Atiku had prayed the apex court to upturn the decision of the election tribunal upholding the victory of Yar’Adua.
Atiku in his brief of argument prepared by Chief Emeka Ngige [SAN] had held that heavens would not fall if Yar’Adua’s election was nullified and also asked the apex court to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] under the leadership of Prof. Maurice Iwu from conducting the re-run election. Buhari in his brief of argument by his lead counsel, Chief Mike Ahamba [SAN], had claimed that results in the election were arbitrarily assigned and that some of them were prepared before the election and added that results had not been announced in all the states before INEC went ahead to declare Yar’Adua as the winner of the presidential election.
But the lead counsel to the President, Chief Wole Olaipekun [SAN], had held that the two appellants did not prove their allegation that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2006 convincingly and that the documentary evidence produced by Buhari to prove that the election did not meet the required acceptable standard amounted to nothing because they needed the testimony of witnesses to have a life as well as that Atiku participated in the election and could not have claimed that he was excluded.
In his submission, counsel to INEC, Chief Kanu Agabi [SAN] stated that the non-compliance identified by the appellants was not enough to vitiate the outcome of the election, adding that the appellants did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the lapses in the conduct of the election affected the outcome.
While delivering his ruling, Supreme Court Justice, Niki Tobi stated, “In sum, this appeal failed and is dismissed. Accordingly, Umaru Yar'Adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan are the President and Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria." Although Tobi was in agreement with the final ruling, the judgment was split 4 to 3 between Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi [Chief Justice of Nigeria & Head of Panel] from Niger State; Justice Aloysius Iyorger Katsina-Alu from Benue State; Justice Dahiru Musdapher from Jigawa State; Justice George Adesola Oguntade from Ogun State; Justice Sunday Akinola Akintan from Ondo State, and Justice Aloma Mariam Murhktar.
In what appears to be the bane of the argument against the election results, lawyers for the opposition candidates during the presentation of the final ruling emphatically stated the election was rigged as evidenced in the well documented fact of the non-serialization of ballot papers [the pivot of any election process], their late delivery as well as their absence at some polling stations and ballot boxes being openly stuffed illegally excluding the candidates for the opposition Action Congress [AC] and the All Nigeria People's Party [ANPP], which subsequently impacted on the transparency of the entire process.
Another bone of contention was that the process was marred by violence in many areas as was the case when opposition supporters burned down an office of the Independent National Election Commission in Katsina and in Kano where a group of armed men took over a police station, killing more than 100 officers and bystanders before they were killed by the army.
