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Supreme Court Verdict on Imo: Why There is Anger in Imo

It is strange that the Supreme Court has again foisted on Imo electorates, a man they never chose to govern them to sit at the helm of affairs. Perhaps the Supreme Court failed to question why the Imo voters had repeatedly rejected Uzodinma who has been at the centre of several high profile fraudulent cases in Nigeria.

The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Tuesday, 14th of January 2020 awarded victory in the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Imo State to the candidate of the APC, Hope Uzodinma and asked that a certificate of return be issued him immediately while also ordering Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP to immediately vacate the governor’s seat which he had occupied since May 29 2019. It was a judgment that shocked an entire nation and got many asking questions, making insinuations and demanding further explanations from the learned justices of the Supreme Court.

In Nigeria like in every democracy, there are constitutionally assigned roles for every stakeholder in each election cycle.  Individuals wishing to contest any political office as candidates must first register themselves with political parties. The parties on their part set the guidelines and laws regulating internal democracy within the party. Party members are required by law to participate in what is called primary elections during which the candidate to fly the party’s flag in an election (from presidency to local government councillorship) are chosen through the popular participation of the qualified members.

As soon as the parties are done with the conduct of the primaries which must follow certain laid down procedures and must be closely monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC- the body charged with the conduct of elections in Nigeria), the names of the candidates are submitted to INEC office at the state capitals and in Abuja. INEC would then be required to after certain period (as established by its own calendar), publish the list of candidates as submitted by the political parties.

The candidates- sponsored by the parties- are required to at the opening of the campaign window- engage the electorates to share their programmes and advance possible solutions to existential problems affecting the wellbeing of the general population. Candidates are expected to engage stakeholders and interest groups, make concessions and strike deals and mobilise groups and parties in preparation for the D-day.

It is important to note here that while the parties and their candidates are getting ready to go into the field on the poll’s day,  INEC is also not left out, monitoring the entire process,  putting its own house in order, training its own staff and ad hoc personnel, preparing them for what basically is a very demanding exercise.

The security agents are also not left out. They are actively involved to curtail the breakdown of law and order, ensure that parties operate in accordance with the laws of the land and that no one is harassed or intimidated on account of  his political conviction. Media stations and other agencies of government and international NGO also get involved, educating the electorates, telling them a few things they should know about the election and providing some form of guidance without being overtly partisan.

When election is conducted on the poll day, INEC is the body charged with all responsibilities pertaining the conduct of the elections, collation of results, announcement of results, and issuance of certificate of return to victorious candidates. INEC is the ultimate authority in matters of election in the country. They are the ones who hire the university lecturers and senior officials who collate and announce election results; they recruit the ad hoc staff and very importantly- offset security and logistics costs. All of these cost the nation a huge chunk of money- N234.5 billion in the 2019 election for instance. But then, no cost is too high to pay for an orderly, sane and peaceful election which is prerequisite for good governance and accountability in the conduct of public affairs.

Where is the court in all of these you may ask? Yes. The court (judiciary) does have a very strategic and important role which is correcting errors committed by either the political parties, individuals or the electoral body (INEC) itself.  It is the court’s statutory responsibility to ensure that parties play in accordance with the rules. The court corrects injustice done to individuals by the parties; the court sacks candidates who do not meet the set criteria from participating in polls. In this category are those who do not possess the relevant academic certificates, those who have criminal cases, those who have been indicted by an administrative tribunal or those who had served jail terms for criminal offences, individuals who manipulated party primaries or were imposed on the party by godfathers. The court is obligated to stop candidates who fall into any of these categories. The court also is expected to serve justice to those who were wronged at the polls, those whose victories were stolen through rigging and falsification of figures at either the poling units, on the way to the collation centres or at the collation centres.  The court also stops those who were wrongfully announced winners through wilful manipulation or human errors and restores victory to the right candidates.

The court is supposed to be an impartial party in an electoral dispute, guided only by the provisions of the law and the weight of the evidence before it.  At all costs, the court must remain guided by the provisions of the law and not be seen to be playing to the gallery. In an election, the only function assigned the court is interpretation of the provisions of the law on any contentious matter brought before by an interested party.

Interestingly, the events of last few days and subsequent reactions after the Supreme Court verdict regarding the Imo guber is raising a lot of concerns about the role of the judiciary and what its judgement portends for our democracy, rule of law and the conduct of other political actors.  Here are five reasons millions of Nigerians consider the Supreme Court’s decision on the Imo governorship contest to be irrational and clear miscarriage of justice:

  1. Usurpation of the role of INEC: INEC- as earlier explained is the body charged with monitoring and conducting elections in the country. INEC is the body statutorily charged with determining winners in any electoral contest. Curiously, the Supreme Court by its Tuesday ruling clearly has taken over that role from the election management body. The Supreme Court in upturning and casting aside the result presented by INEC merely told the Commission that it might as well not exist. At the March 2019 election, Ihedioha Emeka of the PDP polled 273,404. Uche Nwosu of AA scored 190,364 while APGA’s Ifeanyi Ararume convinced 114,676 electorates and then Hope Uzodinma of the APC could only get 96,458 votes. By the ideal definition and understanding of democracy, victory was Ihedioha’s and ruling Imo for the next four years after the election was his privilege. INEC obeyed this universal principle of rule of the majority by announcing Ihedioha winner and issuing him with a certificate of return. Sadly, the Nigerian Supreme Court had a different view of things. Rather than tow the age-old principle of democracy by allowing the man already declared victor by INEC to keep ruling since there are no pending criminal charges against him neither were there any superior argument against his victory, the Supreme Court asked the winner of the polls to vacate his seat, jumped the first and second runners up and went all the way down- to the third runner up to select its preferred winner. How does the Supreme Court impose on a people, a man they rejected at the polls?
  2. Ridiculing the judgment of the voters: The Imo electorates had the opportunity to interact and assess the credentials and pledges made by all the candidates who took part in the election. They were able to identify who was best for them after the disastrous years of Rochas Okorocha. In their numbers, they went for Emeka Ihedioha and the PDP who offered them what they believed was a better deal. They believed he was sincere and possessed the national and international exposure to fix the state and return it to the glory days of the Sam Mbakwe era. In the election, more than one million persons voted across the 27 local government councils in the state.  At the end of the exercise, more than 270 thousand electorates voted for Ihedoha on the strength of what he offered during the electioneering campaign and based on his personal pedigree or rather their assessment of his capability. Sadly, the rigorous choice making process, the meetings, the engagements and the debates were all rubbished by the ill-informed decision of a seven man panel- none of who was privy in any of the processes and even more curiously, had not taken time to understand the dynamics that produced Ihedioha winner. What did they do after torpedoing the choice of the Imo electorates? Hand victory to a man the voters clearly said no to his programs and vision for the state long troubled by misgovernance.
  3. Invalidating the hard work and efforts of the other stakeholders: In the introductory part of this essay, the author took his time to enlighten us- from his lay man’s perspective- on what is expected of several stakeholders in an election. Apart from INEC and the voters whose judgement were rubbished by Tanko Mohammed’s Supreme Court,  other critical players including the police, local and international NGOs, the media, the religious organisations and community leaders amongst others all made inputs in the decision that threw up Emeka Ihedioha as governor. With Tuesday’s ruling, all the night meetings, hard work, sleepless nights and brain work supplied by the people who supported the emergence of Ihedioha have been subjugated to the whims and caprices of a seven man panel who may never visit or have anything to do in Imo state in the next four years. Yet, these individuals elected that it was their prerogative to determine who rules Imo.
  4. The man Uzodinma: Hope Uzodinma- who the Supreme Court asked to be sworn in as governor had been in active politics since 2000. He also is a perennial aspirant for the office of the governor. But on each occasion, 2003, 2007, and 2019, the voters kept ignoring his proposals. Uzodinma did however find political success in 2011 after a lengthy legal battle with Osita Izunaso which took him all the way to the Supreme Court. It was the Supreme Court that gave him the leeway to get into the senate- very much like they have now paved the way for this same unelected politician to sit inside the governor’s office at Douglas House Owerri.  It is strange that the Supreme Court has again foisted on Imo electorates, a man they never chose to govern them to sit at the helm of affairs. Perhaps the Supreme Court failed to question why the Imo voters had repeatedly rejected Uzodinma who has been at the centre of several high profile fraudulent cases in Nigeria. Uzodinma’s name was mentioned in 2001 at the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Panel for his involvement in fraudulently transferring money from the official accounts of the National Maritime Authority to the personal bank accounts of former head of state- Abdulsalami Abubakar. During the Obasanjo era, Uzodinma was also mentioned in the award of a fictitious contract in the presidency which enabled him scoop two hundred and fifty million naira from the nation’s treasury for a job he knew had not been duly awarded. He has also been arrested severally by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for various acts of fraud relating to obtaining by tricks, forgery and manipulation of public records for personal gains. Till date, Uzodinma and his business entities still have unresolved cases with the EFCC. Could all or any of these be the reason the very sophisticated Imo electorates consistently said no to Uzodinma and whichever party he hopes to ride on their back to the governorship seat in Owerri? Bizarrely, this man rejected by illiterate voters and market women and okada riders has now been asked to govern Imo by the court under the lordship of Tanko Mohammed.
  5. Imo forced to return to an unpleasant past: It is true that Imo in the past 20 years since the return to civil rule has never had a standout performer as governor. But in the eight years of Rochas Okorocha, they saw hell. Okorocha never cared about governance. He never gave a hoot about Imo and its future. The civil servants can die and go to hell for all he cared, the market women and men may as well not be existing, the okada riders had no better value than the waste bins that littered every part of the state during his reign. The man simply did not care about Imo. But he did care about something else. Many persons have insinuated that Okorocha abandoned governance to enable him devote more time to land grabbing, executive recklessness and sponsorship of his adult lunacy with the resources of the state.  How many choice plots of land in Owerri were owned by the Okorochas before 2011?  Find out how many world-class buildings, land, hotels, shopping malls and schools now belong to Okorocha and family after eight years at Douglas House.  Okorocha is believed by many to be a very dishonourable man, a fellow who has no use for integrity and an individual for whom the word “honesty” is an anathema.  The “Rochas” factor was the reason Imo voters saw the devil in Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance- an in-law to Rochas Okorocha who also ran to replace him in 2019. However, it does appear that- going by his antecedent and history- the Supreme Court of Nigeria has “elected” for Ndi Imo, a fellow who would be a lot worse than what they thought they escaped when they rejected Okorocha’s “third term” gambit using his in-law as a front. Can Imo state survive the Hope Uzodinma tsunami? Only Tanko Mohammed and his panel of justices can answer.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect ROOT TV's editorial stance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Okafor Chiedozie
Okafor Chiedozie is an economist, political writer and amateur Igbo historian. He pursues these and other interests out of Abuja.
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