*Commends Devolution In Powers In Recent Constitutional Amendment, Calls For Documents To Be Made Available
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A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Yemi Candide-Johnson, has expressed the opinion to the ongoing election petitions pose a critical integrity test for Nigeria’s judiciary.
He disclosed this in an interview with Punch on Sunday where he also commented on a range of topical national issues including the recent constitutional amendments as well as the New Naira policy and the crisis it unfolded.
Speaking on the elections, he noted that the tribunals present an avenue to prove allegations of violence and voter suppression which allegedly marred the election and stated that the court will have to measure if there was substantial compliance with the electoral law despite the identified infractions.
He said, “If you say there were voter suppression and violence, you would be asked how many polling units and how many voters are in those units. The legal question would be whether those disruptions had an impact on the outcome of the election. In any election, the question that must be asked is whether the process has produced a result, which is substantially in compliance with the electoral law, because no country has complete compliance. We saw that in the United States when Donald Trump and his people kept saying there was election rigging, at the end of the day, whether the irregularities they alleged had an impact on the election result was a matter of law and fact. My impression is that the election substantially complied with the Electoral Act and I believe the majority of the results reflected the will of the people of those constituencies.”
The Learned Silk also agreed that with the volume of election petitions being filed before the tribunals, the judiciary seems to be on trial, especially with reference to precedents.
“It is a test of the judiciary and there is no doubt about that. The problem I have is that before you take a test, you should have revised and made preparations. I’m not sure the judiciary is ready for this test. Jurisprudence is organised in a way that promotes certainty in outcome. It should be possible to say that from the body of law, 90 per cent of these cases will be decided in this way. If we knew with certainty how the courts will decide on a number of questions, there will be less cases going to election petitions tribunal, but because there is so much uncertainty and so much incredibility in some decisions the courts have made, people reckon it’s a toss of the dice, like take your chance, file a case, and who knows.”
He continued, “You know the purpose of elections is to decide what the view of the majority is, but the courts have given decisions which subvert the will of the majority. That means there is no philosophy about elections which promotes a democratic result. So, the courts then become an enemy of democracy and they become a maligned participant in the political process, and that is very dangerous for the courts, their credibility in the political sphere and across the board, which goes towards rendering them almost incompetent to achieve the function that they have in a democratic government.”
Candide-Johnson SAN in the interview also hailed the recent constitutional amendments which devolved more powers to the federating units as progressive and commendable.
He however wondered why details of the said amendments are yet to be made public.
He noted, “Devolving power is an important tool of development. It enables more accountability, and different regions and states can organise their affairs in a way that is most efficient, effective and advantageous to their people. So, it’s very important. But another important point to make is that I have been struggling for the past two weeks to get a copy of the amendment. The first I heard of it was the announcement in the newspapers. I don’t understand how it can be a secret. I appreciate many of the changes, but it’s remarkable that something as significant as amending the constitution would be almost secretive. I have asked people, even those who are in government and they can’t give me a copy of the amendment. That’s a problem. If people know more about it, there will be beneficial results.”
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