The role of the judiciary in determining winners and losers in elections has escalated beyond any reasonable prognostication since Nigeria’s return of civil rule in 1999.
When it sacked the civilian government on the last day of 1983, the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari launched a judicial commission of inquiry into the operations of the FEDECO, chaired by Bolarinwa Babalakin, a senior judge who later went on to serve on Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
By contrast, 2015 was the first time that Nigeria’s presidential election did not end up in court, reflecting the consensus that the elections of that year were relatively well organised with results that largely reflected the will of the people. It was also the first time that the proportion of elections ending up in courts was less than 50% . The 2019 elections produced 766 petitions , roughly the same number as the 769 seen in 2011.
Two years earlier, in April 2009, then Governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki, procured the removal of the Chief Judge of the State, Raliat Elelu-Habeeb, by purporting to act on a summary resolution of the State House of Assembly, which he totally controlled. Her crime was that she was considered too independent.
For instance, when in 2004, Jacob Ugwu was due to retire as the Chief Judge of Enugu State, the NJC initially recommended Raphael Agbo, the most senior active judge in the state, to succeed him. The then state governor, Chimaraoke Nnamani, had other ideas and maneuvered to get Agbo elevated to the Court of Appeal, creating an opening for his preferred candidate – Innocent Umezulike, who, at that point, was only sixth in seniority among the judges on the High Court of Enugu State.
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