2023 Election Law Bulletin: Is Adeosun Or Pantami Qualified To Be The Next President?

By P. D. Pius, Esq.

It was on 14th day of September 2018, that Adeosun resigned as Minister of Finance due to the alleged NYSC certificate forgery scandal.

It was about the first time a high Nigerian government official will resign due to allegations of past wrongdoing. What is of interest here is whether an allegation of past wrongdoing can disqualify a person from becoming President of Nigeria under the law. Another instance is Isa Pantami who is alleged to have been the Chief Imam of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi mosque, whose preaching directly led to the brutal murder of a 400-level student, Sunday Achi, who was the leader of the ECWA Student Ministries (ESM) on the campus.

What does the law say about allegations of wrongdoing as it relates to vying for public office or occupying same? The constitution only requires that you should be Nigerian by birth, be 35 years, belong to a political party, and be able to read and write to be President. That’s all. Very simple requirement. See section 131 of CFRN. There is a but which I will tell eventually. One of such but is that, you must not be guilty of some disqualification factors like commission of certain previous Offences. The emphasis is on certain offences.

So, what offense will disqualify a person? They include:
1. an offence involving dishonesty or fraud, or
2. Contravention of code of conduct, or
3. Presentation of forged certificate to INEC.

These are the offences written in the constitution. See section 137(1)(d)(e) and (j) of Constitution. With this limited provision, it can be easily argued that even previous conviction for offences of terrorism, murder, may not disqualify a candidate as it may not be an offense involving dishonesty or fraud or contravention of code of conduct. But this is not the thrust of this piece. It is left for lawyerly argument in courts.

The point of appreciation however is that the law distinguished proof of previous conviction from mere allegations. What is alleged against Adeosun and Pantami even though admitted extra judicially does not amount to conviction by court of law. The painful aspect of the law that we must all bear for the good of rule of law is that even if we all know the truth, our knowledge does not amount to proof in court.

There is a further duty on those with knowledge of the truth to either directly make a report or engage the services of a lawyer to make a report on their behalf for the investigation, prosecution and conviction of those alleged to have committed any offense at all. Unless that is done, your knowledge of whatever truth there maybe has not helped the society and your knowledge alone can not operate to disqualify a person from becoming President or occupying public office.

The interesting part is that, if a person is qualified to be the President, he is invariably qualified to be a Minister. The question of personal moral judgement of having been known to have committed a wrong, avails to the individual to guide him in making voter decisions in the next elections or quitting the office based on personal morality.

In all of these, there is a great need for two essentials:
1. Citizens developing the habit of reporting the Commission of public offence directly or through lawyers for greater public good, and
2. Constitutional amendment to improve on qualification to occupy public office.

Until then, both Adeosun and Pantami are eminently qualified.

LAW TO REMEMBER
You are allowed to register your own political party and present your candidates in 2023 elections. See section 222 of CFRN.

P. D. Pius, Esq., Abuja, Nigeria, piusdanba@gmail.com