By Dr. Anthony C. Okonkwo
“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.” – Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States of America.
Several sociopolitical theories have been advanced to explain the basis for Law and Order in human human society. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacque Rousseau are some of the greatest profunders of the origin of the State Theory.
What seems to be common to all the theories is that the pristine humans sought the need to have a society that will have the instrument of checks and balances in place, with a view to shielding the weak from the excesses of the strong. Law and Order is the instrument contrived to ensure that justice is an inextricable part of the human society. No society thrives without dispassionate justice.
In Nigeria, the instrument that checks human excesses and shields the weak from the inordinate quests of the strong seems to have lost its force, as the judiciary (the Temple of Justice) has become too compromised of late to be considered the last bastion of hope for the common man.
The 2023 Presidential Election has come but has failed to go, due to a panoply of acrimony that accrued from its most unacceptable administration. Nigerians have refused to accept the result of the election. As a matter of fact, the European Union Observer Team has most recently publicly submitted that INEC and some individuals from the APC failed woefully during the 25 February, 2023 Presidential Election and calls it an aftermath of the abrasive illegality.
Nigerians had high hope in INEC because of the 2022 Electoral Act that stipulated that the election would be conducted on the basis of administration of electronic voting system – the use of BVAS and IReV – which ought to shut the door on all forms of electoral malpractices .
Shamefully and shockingly, INEC, the electoral umpire that had raised the hope of Nigerians, made a policy somersault by manipulating the electioneering process to suit a preferred candidate. Several anomalies were uncovered with evidence/proofs of fake documents, results, as well as the very open drug trafficking indictment and forfeiture of proceeds from the alleged crime of President Bola Tinubu in the USA deserving serious legal attention and must not be overlooked
Now that the outcome of the inspection of the materials have revealed serious sleazes in the electioneering process, and a clear case of probable documentary fraud and inadmissibility of Bola Tinubu, it is only trite and expected that the Temple of Justice will rise to its natural calling and true basis for existence by doing justice to all.
Nigerian Youths with the voting strength of over 60% are depending on the Nigerian Judiciary to seize this golden happenstance to relaunch itself as the true last bastion of the helpless and hopeless. Nigerians are on the verge of hatching a political revolution, and the judiciary is the only wing of defence against this resort to self-help. To stop the common Nigerian from taking laws into their hands, the Judiciary must ensure that the petitions before it are adjudicated judiciously on judiciously and on merit. Never to be cowed into cowardice by the APC and Tinubu.
The Presidential Candidate of the PDP, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, put up legal and professional teams that carried out forensic, expert, and legal ‘examination’ of the 2023 General Election and successfully uncovered a lot of deliberate infractions in the system. The findings of this investigation are before the judiciary. The unity of Nigeria hangs on the judiciary. It is how these petitions are administered to that will either make or mar our unity as a nation. Furthermore, judicious administration of these petitions will have a positivepositive impact on the image of the Nigerian judiciary globally, since the entire world is aware of the illegitimacy cum illegality of the last election.
We therefore urge the men in wig and gown to clean up the Aegean Stable by ensuring that a thorough legal examination of the 2023 General Election is done. The conduct of the election must be juxtaposed with the provisions of the newly signed Electoral Act 2022 (S.66) and must be in consonance with the apropos sections of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (S. 133, 134 and 179). The judiciary must be hardihood enough to call a spade a spade. If a candidate was cheated by the electoral umpire under the influence of the wrongly declared winner, the Court must be bold enough to say so and give power to the real winner and penalize the miscreant(s).
Section 66 of the Electoral Act 2022 below is a guide:
“In an election to the office of the President or Governor whether or not contested and in any contested election to any other office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast for each candidate and subjected to the provisions of Section 133, 134 and 179 of the Constitution…”
The Apostles of Justice in Nigeria must work hard to ensure that the conduct of the election wades through the rigorous crucible of the quoted section of the Electoral Act in line with sections 133, 134, and 176 of the Constitution.
However, where it is the case that it is difficult to ascertain the real winner, due to complexity, then the Court must summon the gumption to call for a rerun in the shortest possible time. Truth be told, Nigeria is in the straits now. It is only the judiciary that can reinstate sanity and decorum in our flaky state of the nation. May the good crucible of fairness and equity people the apostles of justice with the needed fortitude to right the obvious wrongs that has been levied on the country and save our hard fought democracy for an impending implosion.
Let justice stand today, tomorrow and forever.
This Opinion Piece is written by Dr. Anthony C. Okonkwo, a Pro-Democratic Nigerian currently living in the United States. Dr Okonkwo is an advocate of democracy and good governance.
