For Nigerians, justice, culturally, has many faces. Given their nature, politicians here seem to be democrats as an afterthought; they are not natural democrats. This may partly explain why they are at odds with the principles and practice of democracy, with the idea of losing election and conceding, and winning and being magnanimous. To them, everything is subjective, including the judgements of courts, from the magistrate level to the Supreme Court. If a dispute is resolved in his favour, the Nigerian praises the impartiality of the judiciary and their noble contributions to the sustainability of democracy. But if he loses, the judgements are curious, baffling and do great damage to democracy.
The reaction on all sides to the Rivers State governorship election petition, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, is probably the archetype. When the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost woefully both at the first (governorship election petition tribunal) level and second (Appeal Court) level, Governor Nyesom Wike and party chieftains growled at what they feared was a plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to transform the country into a one-party state. Democracy was dying, they wailed. The Muhammadu Buhari presidency and former governor Rotimi Amaechi had threatened to use the courts to retake the governorship, they alleged. The last hope of the common man was dead, they also chorused.
However, immediately the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Mr. Wike, both the governor and his party, not excluding their media friends and other sundry loyalists, all roared that, finally and substantially, the judiciary had been saved and the common man’s last hope restored. It seemed to many that given the progression of the case at the lower courts, the Rivers case would end in victory for the APC; what with all the killings sustained by the progressives, and the evident disruptions, chaos and non-voting that accompanied the poll. Indeed, had the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the APC, not many legal minds would have queried the competence and patriotism of the eminent justices.
The PDP in particular still feels besieged. It lost the presidency and many governorship offices in the last polls, and appeared paralysed by their inability to command attention as they used to do, not to talk of resisting the corrosive effects of the anti-graft war that seemed to focus more on their top leaders. Their national chairman, Uche Secondus, was in fact theatrical in his reaction to the court cases. Said he when the Supreme Court decided the Rivers case in favour of the PDP: “Indeed, the PDP and all lovers of democracy in the country commend the maturity and patriotism being displayed by the Supreme Court in dispensing justice, a development, which has strengthened the confidence of the people in democracy and rule of law. Wednesday’s rulings on Abia and Akwa Ibom, coming after the apex court which last week handed justice in affirming the elections of Governors Nyesom Wike and Dave Umahi of Rivers and Ebonyi states respectively, have not only put a seal on the popularity of our governors, as duly reflected in the elections, but also that of the PDP, irrespective of the temporary setback of the 2015 general elections…”
Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, was even more theatrical and shrill in denouncing the rulings of both the governorship tribunal and the Appeal Court in the Rivers case. “The seeming collaboration between the All Progressives Congress-led federal government and a section of the judiciary is worrisome and portends grave danger to the corporate existence of Nigeria,” he asserted. “This is worse than corruption that the president claimed to be fighting.” But after the Supreme Court had restored the governorship to the PDP, his voice was one of the loudest in praising the judiciary for resisting intimidation. Yet, of all the intimidatory tactics any politician was ever guilty of, his was probably the worst when in September 2014 as governor-elect he inspired the sacking of a High Court in Ado Ekiti, his state capital, which was hearing a case involving his competence to run in the governorship election of that year.
Until the facts are comprehensively examined and the judgements of the Supreme Court subjected to forensic legal scrutiny, it may not be quite clear why the apex court has decided all the cases in the governorship election petitions in favour of the incumbents. All the 11 or so cases so far, from Rivers to Zamfara and Oyo to Delta, ad infinitum, have been decided in favour of the incumbents and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The PDP, which cries the loudest, has benefited the most. And the APC, whose chairman early this week made an unfortunate statement on the Supreme Court judgement in the Rivers case, also has its fair share of victories. Does justice in effect have many faces? So far, only one face can be seen. Any other face is merely a product of the hallucination and cultural astigmatism of Nigeria’s feisty politicians.
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