“Labour Party Has An Uphill Task At The Presidential Election Tribunal”– Robert Clark, SAN

In an interview with elder statesman,  Robert Clark , SAN, on Arise TV news program “Newsday”, the learned senior advocate has chipped in his thought for the debate on the dispute for the presidential election to be resolved before the swearing in and the argument that the proceedings to be televised live.

Asked on the CTC being filed and how feasible will it be for the court to resolve all the election litigation before inauguration on May 29th? The elder statesman had said that:

“To be honest with you, the law is very clear as to how many days will lapse between the presentation of petition, the hearing of petitions and the determinations of petitions and I don’t see anything wrong with that, the period is 180 days and I believe that with sincerity amongst Nigerians, the period is okay, and things should have been done. But you know, in everything in Nigeria, the ‘Nigerians Factor’ is always there. And the Nigerian factor as you and I, we Nigerians are always the cause of our problem. If we are not Nigerians, who we are and we decide to do things in the normal way, then 180 days is quite enough and we have enough time to ourselves”

Going further, he was asked about the agitation on the election; on it being controversial by people and how resolving the election by the election petitions tribunal before the inauguration it can help douse the tension. Also, his opinion was asked on calls for the presidential elections to be televised live.

The elder statesman faults the Nigerian constitution and stated that the idea of an individual mandatorily joining a political party before contesting in an election remains a problem. Hence, giving an enormous power to the political party and so, creating a “do or die” political system. So, the restriction of individuals into the governance of the country; the tolerance of the people in religion and tribe should be incorporated in the constitution.

On the grounds for both parties (the APC and the PDP) for going to court, he added his voice by out listing the grounds for the appeal, according to him; the labor party had alleged that Bola Tinubu is not eligible to be voted for in the election and even if he is legible to vote he did not get the two third votes in the federal capital territory, also, that the election was marred with and different things.

Drawing from his pool of his experience, the learned silk argued that the grounds on his ineligibility to run in the election were a settled matter and a “non-starter.” On the second ground, he posited that he does not agree with the position of the labor party. According to him, the Supreme Court has stated that Abuja has been created as one of the states and that, Abuja should not be granted any special privileges and all states have equal status, then why interpret it that way? “Democracy means plurality of the people by the people and for the people”. He said he was basing his position on what the Supreme Court had said on the status of the FCT and the status of votes in the FCT.

Also, the allegation that the election was marred with so many irregularities. Already, the Evidence Act already gave INEC a rebuttable presumption that they conducted free and fair elections. Similarly, election petitions are sui generis which means that compliance with the provision of the electoral act is not a total compliance but substantial compliance is expected of the INEC. The Supreme Court will have to define the word “substantial”. So, “they have an uphill task” he emphatically stated.

He concluded that he cannot claim that they will not succeed but that they have an uphill task.