The Supreme Court judgment affirming Governor Nyesom Wike as the
validly elected governor of Rivers State will stretch the imaginations
and permutations of political gladiators.
By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has since 1963 when it became the court of final arbitration been regarded as a god
which can do and undo. Last Wednesday, the court, out of the blues,
gave a final ruling on three governorship contests that inevitably put a
seal to the aspirations of some of the major political contenders in
three states – Rivers, Ebonyi and Ogun.
However, of the three, none has drawn more controversy and
searchlight than the judgment in Rivers. It validated the mandate of
Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and cut off
the aspiration of Dr. Dakuku Peterside, his major rival from the All
Progressives Congress, APC.
The finality of the judgment and the consequence remain a wonder to
many supporters of Dakuku who had been egged on by the positive
judgments given by the two lower courts. The Tribunal and the Court of
Appeal had earlier annulled the election that brought Wike to office on
the strength of what was claimed as the non adherence by the electoral
officers in the state to the guidelines for the election issued by the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
One of the major guidelines was that votes which do not pass through the test of the card reader should be discountenanced. Subsisting provisions
Remarkably, the Dakuku legal team had at the lower courts produced
two senior officials of INEC who affirmed that the governorship election
in Rivers State was largely conducted in disregard of the subsisting
provisions of the Electoral Act.
That was besides the avalanche of reports of violence that
characterised the elections. Reflective of suggestions of the poor
conduct of the elections, the elections that produced all three senators
and all nine members of the House of Representatives from the state
were dismissed by the Court of Appeal. File: Governor Nyesom Wike during his swearing-in on May 29, 2015.
In dismissing the appeal by Wike against the judgment of the Tribunal
for a rerun of the governorship election, the Court of Appeal had said
that it would be a bad precedent to overlook the glaring malpractices
that attended the election.
“It portends great danger for our democracy and electoral process for
INEC officials to have the effrontery and temerity to thwart laid down
directives and go ahead to conduct elections according to their own
whims and caprices, notwithstanding the approved guidelines”.
Remarkably, the elections that produced the majority of the members
of the State House of Assembly have also been annulled by the Court of
Appeal which ordered fresh elections in the affected constituencies.
Suggestive of what was alleged as the wide scale improprieties that
characterised the governorship and the state House of Assembly elections
that took place on the same day, the 32 member State House of Assembly
has been unable to form a quorum because of the annulment of the
elections of 22 members of the state legislators who were all but one
elected on the platform of the PDP.
The annulment of the elections of the legislators had given hope to
the camp of the APC that at worst, a fresh governorship election would
be ordered as had been done for the legislative election. Suggestions of
a fresh governorship election had in recent times created panic among
residents and stakeholders who lived through the orgy of violence that
characterised the campaigns and processes that led to the 2015
governorship election. Scores of persons were killed in the violence
marshalled by sympathisers of the contenders. Not even security men were
spared in the violence.
Wednesday’s judgment, to stave off another election, would no doubt
be welcomed by panicky residents, even if, the decision would be seen
as a pain to democracy enthusiasts.
Wike and Dakuku had in the last few months been on campaign mood
preparatory to a fresh election. Governor Wike’s on the spot inspections
of projects in Port-Harcourt were largely seen as pre-campaign
activities, especially when he normally came out to denounce the
activities of his predecessor, Chibuke Amaechi, who is largely regarded
as the power behind Dakuku.
The decision to uphold the election of Wike would irretrievably mean a
continuation of the political face off between Amaechi and Wike, who
was once his chief of staff as governor but who subsequently emerged as
Amaechi’s most formidable political rival in the state. The next battles: The staging post for the next
battle between the two men would be the forthcoming rerun elections in
the National Assembly constituencies and the vacant seats in the House
of Assembly. Widespread allegations
Amaechi is expected to mobilise his supporters with a freer hand
given widespread allegations that the Goodluck Jonathan administration
suppressed him through the instrumentality of federal security forces
during the 2015 elections. The showdown in the forthcoming elections
would determine the scale of political power in the state as the PDP and
the APC fight to get the advantage over one another. Conspiracies: It was not being voiced out by many,
there are, however, suggestions that the Supreme Court decision may have
been a bold reaction by the judiciary to the alleged disobedience of
court orders by President Muhammadu Buhari in recent cases involving
some corruption cases.
The Supreme Court prides itself as the ultimate protector of the law
of the country and seeing court decisions being flouted by the APC led
administration may have infuriated the jurists in the apex court who
some now claim, may have decided to showcase its powers by hurting the
APC led government where it pained most in Rivers State. Some also
recollect how the Supreme Court also dealt a severe blow on a former
president who allegedly trampled with the power of the judiciary.
Interestingly, it is suggested in some quarters that that case may have
also led the Supreme Court to delay its declaratory judgment that helped
Amaechi to become governor in 2007. Dakuku Peterside
Ahead of the 2007 election, the court had upheld the nomination of a
former disciple of the president turned foe, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume as
the PDP governorship candidate in the election in Imo State.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, the leader of the PDP at that time had
in annoyance of the judgment of the court gone to Owerri and declared
that the PDP does not have a candidate, a development that allowed the
emergence of Mr. Ikedi Ohakim of the Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA
as governor of the state.
Having seen its intent scorned by the president, the apex court
allegedly waited to get its pound of flesh on the former president. Two
weeks after the president exited office, the court shocked many when it
sacked Obasanjo’s Man Friday, Andy Uba as governor of Anambra State.
Just as it did on Wednesday night, the court did not give its reasons
immediately and waited much longer to write out its judgment. Such
actions some suggest could mean the jurists using their body language to
show their anger at the contempt of the judiciary by those who hold
executive power.
Other innuendoes that are bound to surface include the fact that the
spouse of a Supreme Court justice is an implacable foe of Amaechi.
Though all such claims of a political or underhand motif for the
judgment remain speculative, political stakeholders are bound to bring
such innuendoes to play in giving their own interpretations of the
judgment.
EmoticonEmoticon