NigeriaOpinionPoliticsWill the court, not the electorate, determine the winner of the presidential poll?

“None of Nigeria’s presidential election results has ever been overturned by the courts”

No election in Nigeria’s recent history has faced many protests and rejections by those who lost. So controversial was the 2023 general election that aggrieved candidates have headed to court to challenge the outcome of last month’s presidential election.

Nigerians demonstrated their dedication to democracy on February 25, but there are many angry and frustrated Nigerians who believe that the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, won the election due to widespread fraud and irregularities as well as many who are celebrating victories they believe were hard-fought and well-earned.

The two leading opposition candidates: runner-up Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and third-place Labour Party’s candidate Peter Obi have both rejected defeat; each claiming to have won the election and have sought the intervention of the courts to reclaim what they have described as their ‘stolen mandate’.

The efforts to sow doubt over the outcome of the presidential election are not just historical curiosities. Post-election litigation is nothing new in Nigeria. Except for the 2015 election, every presidential election held since 1999 has ended in legal fireworks, but none quite as dramatically as this year’s presidential election.

Consequently, the judiciary, constitutionally positions as the final arbiter in election disputes, most often, ends up being the determiner of the winners and losers of elections. However, none of Nigeria’s presidential election results has ever been overturned by the courts.

There’s a litany of cases when the Supreme Court acted as a last resort in cases of electoral result disputes. In 1979, the late Obafemi Awolowo, the presidential candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, contested the declaration of Shehu Shagari, the presidential candidate of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, as the winner of the 11 August 1979, presidential election.

Awolowo challenged the late Shagari’s victory because it had not satisfied the requirement in the electoral decree of the time that the winner had to secure one-quarter of the votes cast in two-thirds of all the states of the federation. But Shagari’s victory was affirmed by the election petition tribunal and the apex court.

After Olusegun Obasanjo, candidate of the PDP was declared the winner of the February 27, 1999, presidential election, Olu Falae, who contested the election on the joint platform of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, and All Peoples Party, APP, filed a lawsuit disputing the result but he lost the case.

The presidential election of April 19, 2003, which was in favour of Obasanjo was also challenged by Muhammadu Buhari, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, candidate, and Chukwuemeka Ojukwu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. The court, however, upheld Obasanjo’s re-election.

Atiku and Buhari who contested the 2007 presidential election under the platform of the Action Congress, AC, and ANPP, respectively, registered their grievances with the outcome of the election in the courts but PDP’s Umaru Yar’Adua’s victory was endorsed. Buhari’s eventual victory in the 2015 presidential poll was also disputed by his former ally, Atiku who ran on PDP’s ticket but the Supreme Court ruled that the former vice president’s case lacked merit.

February 25, 2023, presidential election has presented yet another opportunity for the judiciary, especially the apex court, to decide the winner of the election, thereby putting an end to the endless controversies that trailed the outcome of the election and for the contenders to bury the hatchet.

With the wave of reactions already generated by the litigations, it is safe to say that many Nigerians will be keeping a close eye on the ensuing court proceedings

By Ezinwanne Onwuka (Senior Reporter)

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