SimonKolawolelive By Simon-Kolawole, Email: [email protected][1], sms: 0805 500
1961
The Supreme Court has been adding a lot of spice to our politics
in recent times, but I did not see the Bayelsa bombshell coming.
Less than 24 hours to the swearing-in of APC’s David Lyon as the
governor, the court nullified his election because of the
credentials of Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, the deputy
governor-elect. The two-time senator was accused of providing
“false information” and swearing to an affidavit to back his claims
in the nomination forms submitted to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC). Since his candidature was nullified,
that also meant Lyon, his principal, suffered the collateral
damage. Both of them had to go down together.
The PDP had challenged the Lyon/Degi-Eremienyo ticket at a
federal high court in Abuja before the November 16, 2019 election.
Four days to the D-Day, Justice Inyang Ekwo delivered a judgment
disqualifying APC from the election, ruling that there was no
connection between the names on Degi-Eremienyo’s various
certificates. The submitted first school leaving certificate, West
African secondary school certificate, first degree and graduate
degree all have different names. The court concluded that this was
false information and disqualified him. Since the governorship
nomination is invalid without a running mate, it meant APC was not
qualified to run in the election.
Degi-Eremienyo appealed, not surprisingly. Two days to the
election, the Court of Appeal granted an injunction suspending the
high court judgment in order to allow APC participate in the
election. Then on December 23, 2019 — five weeks after the election
had been won by the Lyon/Degi-Eremienyo ticket in the traditionally
PDP state — the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of APC. Not
surprisingly again, PDP appealed. Nigeria is configured in a way
that until a case reaches the Supreme Court, litigation won’t stop.
These days, they are even appealing against the apex court! If it
were still possible, they would be heading to Privy Council in the
UK, the highest court during colonial rule.
In any case, PDP had a good outing in the Supreme Court, which
upheld the high court judgment, nullified the votes scored by APC
in the election, and asked INEC to do the rest of the job in line
with constitutional requirements — unlike in the Imo case when it
specifically asked INEC to return Senator Hope Uzodinma of the APC
as the winner of the governorship election. The initial question
being raised on social media, where most discussions take place
nowadays, was that PDP’s Douye Diri could not be declared winner
because he did not score one-thirds of votes cast in two-thirds of
the state. They forgot that APC’s votes would now count for nothing
in the final analysis.
After looking at the whole drama, I have a number of
observations, conclusions and recommendations. For one, I am still
not sure there is a water-tight case of false information against
Degi-Eremienyo. The fact that somebody used different names at
different times does not mean the information is false. Was it
ascertained that he is, indeed, not the same person? A cousin of
mine, now of blessed memory, used at least five different names in
her lifetime. She woke up one day, dropped her family name, adopted
her maternal grandfather’s, changed to her step grandfather’s, then
to her husband’s and finally to her father’s first name. She
battled rejection all her life.
The lesson here, for me, is that things have to be done properly
and in order. Degi-Eremienyo should have sworn to affidavits at
each point he changed his name — if that was the real case. In
Nigeria, we do things anyhow, believing there would be no
consequences. People even have different dates of birth. BVN
registration has put many Nigerians in trouble. Our “anyhowness” in
Nigeria does not have a parallel elsewhere in the world. I want to
assume that this is what has come back to bite Degi-Eremienyo. I
don’t know how much effort his lawyers made in court to prove that
he is the same person. Twitter arguments cannot replace court
submissions.
Two, the time has come for the National Assembly to make a law
mandating INEC to verify certificates. From what I understand, a
vast number of Nigerian politicians are parading fake documents:
fake birth certificates, fake school certificates, fake degrees,
including PhDs, and fake NYSC discharge certificates. A former
speaker of the House of Representatives once told me that when he
wanted to constitute committees and asked members to submit their
credentials, he almost ran mad. He could not believe the number of
“honourable members” who came forward with bogus certificates,
mostly from foreign institutions. They know they can get away with
it.
INEC used to disqualify candidates after screening their
credentials until the Supreme Court ruled in favour of
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in 2007. President Olusegun Obasanjo
had desperately tried to disqualify Atiku from contesting in that
year’s presidential election after their very public falling-out.
He set up the Ignatius Ayua panel, made up of famous names such as
Oby Ezekwesili, to indict Atiku. INEC eagerly used the white paper
to carry out the order. But the Supreme Court ruled that INEC could
not disqualify anybody, that only a court could. The court
apparently wanted to clip Obasanjo’s tyranny, but it ended up
creating a destructive lacuna. INEC must get back its power.
Three, politicians and political parties must begin to take the
nomination process more seriously. That is one big lesson that
should stick out from the Bayelsa case. APC did a poor job in its
selection of candidates for the 2019 elections. There was hardly
any state where the APC conducted itself decently. They ended up
not having governorship candidates in Rivers and Zamfara states
because of these shenanigans. I have always believed that there is
no difference between APC and PDP apart from APC’s world-class
expertise in propaganda — and I have never seen anything to make me
change my mind. Their character and characteristics are strikingly
alike.
When the Supreme Court uninstalled PDP’s Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha
as the governor of Imo state and replaced him with Uzodinma, the
PDP cried blue murder, saying “our democracy is endangered”. APC
said justice was well served. Now that the same court has nullified
the election of APC’s Lyon as governor of Bayelsa, PDP is happy
while the APC is crying “our democracy is endangered”. It reminds
me of when APC was the leading opposition party in the country: the
only election that was “free, fair and credible” was the one they
won. If PDP won, they would demand that Prof Attahiru Jega, the
INEC chairman at the time, be fired. Birds of a feather.
Four, there is a debate as to why a governorship candidate
should be disqualified on the account of the illegibility of the
running mate. Everybody should carry their own can, according to a
particular line of argument. This is tricky. It can be argued that
since it is a joint ticket and the requirements are the same, what
affects one must affect the other. This is because if a governor
dies, resigns or is removed from office, the deputy steps in
automatically. Therefore, it makes sense that both of them are
treated as two sides of a coin. I do not think we need to change
our laws in that regard. Parties should just make sure their
tickets are not contaminated by either candidate.
Five, I like the fact that the Supreme Court did not declare
Odiri the governor-elect. It simply said INEC should do the math
and conclude its job. This, in my view, is the logical thing to do.
This is a departure from the Imo case where it asked INEC to return
Uzodinma as governor-elect. I still believe that what the Supreme
Court should have done was to order INEC to include the 388 result
sheets excluded from collation, do the math and complete the job.
This would have allowed INEC to check if Uzodinma met the crucial
constitutional requirement of spread — failing which there would
have been a run-off between him and Ihedioha. That makes more sense
to me.
Finally, it may not seem like it but our democracy has just been
strengthened. When the Supreme Court nullified APC’s votes, I was
quietly afraid INEC was going to play some funny games to please
the ruling party by not declaring PDP as the winner. INEC usually
took its cue from Obasanjo in those days. In fact, it appeared INEC
was a chapter of PDP before Jega became its chairman. The party
essentially gave directives to INEC which the electoral umpire
dutifully obeyed. I was, therefore, expecting something funny from
INEC on Friday. I thought they would still be counting APC’s
useless votes. But they rose to the occasion and did the right and
lawful thing. For me, this is progress.