An Unenviable Time Of Nigeria’s Judiciary -By Clement Uwayah

The 2023 presidential elections has come and gone, but the aftermath has left the country with do much division and uncertainty. Sleep was murdered the very minutes the umpire, INEC announced a winner. It was indeed a decision that fell short of expectations by all standards. It has no doubts, thrown Nigeria’s Judiciary into a deep test of integrity, or do we say predicament? Never in history have citizens been very keen and eager on an electoral matter as they are concerning this one. At every nook and crannies, the talk has always been the expected outcome of the presidential election court case that seeks to dismiss INEC’s declared winner in the elections, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is a season of apprehensions. 

While those who felt rigged out, their supporters and majority of the citizens know what not to expect, those who are alleged to have rigged and their supporters also surely know what they want as the outcome. And, INEC itself being a defendant in the case cannot be ruled out of apprehension. So, from all indications, it is one court case which judgement is expected to spur some earth tremors, either ways. However it turns out, citizens must hold firm the fact that there’s no alternative to peace.

This write up is not an attempt to dwell on the issues as they are well known to all. However, it is important to note that this case would go down in the history of Nigeria’s political history as one with the highest degree of interests, maybe anxiety. A lot will change in Nigeria’s jurisprudence. As it stands, it is a big battle of wits between the nation’s top legal luminaries seeking to emerge winner, especially as it concerns the 25 percent required score for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. However that singular interpretation goes, it won’t be a hard peel to the legal luminaries themselves, because their debates were never intended to be along the line of truthfulness but dexterity to win their case. This is where the legal profession is perceived as one that does not hold the ace for pure religious practices of absolute sincerity.

Most certainly, the role played by the various actors, from the candidates, party members, supporters, INEC, legal luminaries and all others would be swallowed by the pronouncements of the supreme court judges whose verdict would remain as reference. This is where it is undeniable that the judges currently hearing the case are in the most trying times of their career. What would they be looking to do, and who would they be looking to please? Definitely, that they are under pressure is not to be waved aside. Would they be looking to please any of the candidates for any purpose, especially on grounds of long term ambition, planting and nurture towards its actualization? Would they be looking to see from the point of view of who and what the times and season of our life as a nation seeks desire? Anyway it goes, they must sit down to reflect on the need to please their creator by doing the right thing. Interestingly, no matter their religious inclinations, there is no one that gives room for injudicious manipulations. 

In deciding the case before it, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal judges must bear it in mind that it is truly not an enviable time for them. They must  put their family name into consideration, as it would go down in history almost permanently. This is indeed, a landmark case that would be referenced for decades to come. Their generations to come do not deserve a stigma arising from what could be perceived as convoluted judgement. All eyes from within and outside of Nigeria, are on the judges. We hope they get it right!!!

Clement Uwayah, a political affairs commentator, writes from Edo state.