Judiciary as political umpire?
It was the National Chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria , Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye, who famously declared in the run up to the 1983 general elections that there were only two political parties in Nigeria – the NPN and the military. The opposition political parties took umbrage at Akinloye’s explosive assertion. They interpreted it as implying that the ruling NPN would prefer the military coming back to power than losing at the polls.
In the absence, for instance, of a largely coherent and credible entity like the military able to intervene as in the past when democratic rule experiences systemic breakdown, persistently disruptive behavior on the part of the political class is more likely to result in generalized descent to anarchy with devastating consequences within and beyond Nigeria if such an entity as we know it survives as a cohesive whole.
Of course, the court was, unsurprisingly, not persuaded. Here is a man who had not only risen to the apex of Nigeria’s military as a General; he is a former Head-of-State and Commander-In-Chief of the country’s Armed Forces. Furthermore, he had contested for the country’s presidency on four previous occasions amassing substantial votes on all occasions.
Does this mean that aggrieved contestants and parties in elections must sacrifice the pursuit of justice in the interest of peace? No. The latter will surely always ultimately be a function of the former. But has Atiku really been denied justice in this instance as claimed by the PDP in its rather provocative reaction to Wednesday’s verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court ? It is difficult to agree with the PDP.
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