Kogi State is suffering many mishaps from which it is unlikely to extricate itself anytime soon. A few days before the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal gave judgement in the case filed by James Abiodun Faleke seeking to be declared winner of the November 21, 2015 governorship election, the state was in an uproar over rumours the judgement had been bought for N1.5bn in favour of the respondent, Governor Yahaya Bello. The rumourmongers offered nothing to substantiate their allegations other than to say that soon everyone would see judgement entered in favour of the respondent. Predictably, the court could not and would not defend itself, for that is the judicial convention. It was, however, expected that the persuasive juridical logic of the eminent judges, if displayed in handling the petition, would put paid to any hostile rumour.
A spokesman for Kogi State governor, Kingsley Fanwo, however, described the allegations as a calculated attempt to blackmail the governor and defame the judiciary. “The allegations,” he mocked, “are laughable, untrue, malicious and illogical.” The Kogi Patriotic Front (KPF), which made the allegations, has not come forward since the June 6 judgement to defend their position or forward a petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC) as they threatened.
Until they do, no one will take them seriously. And since they have offered no substantiation, it is even worse for their image, assuming they truly exist. But despite the frivolity with which the KPF dishes out allegations, the tribunal’s justices did not manage to give the impression of either thoroughness in arriving at their decision or that they recognise the weighty responsibility of serving the cause of justice.
As the analysis on the back page of this newspaper shows, except where the tribunal claimed jurisdiction over the Faleke petition, the justices got it wrong abysmally on every count they addressed, and embarrassingly wronger still on every count and argument they simply and indifferently declined to address. The KPF might be unable to substantiate their allegations, but the insufferable manner the three eminent justices handled the Faleke petition gave impetus to every imaginary calculation or conjecture that wars against the jurisprudential fidelity of the case. More insidiously, by endorsing Mr Bello as governor, the justices underscored the observations and fears entertained by many observers about the unhealthy and unconstitutional politicisation of the Faleke petition. In short, the judgement has no jurisprudential foundation, only political foundation. The justices merely reinforced that execrable political foundation.
So far, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, has twice intervened in the affairs of Kogi State since the death of the APC standard-bearer, Abubakar Audu. Both interventions were absolutely needless. Though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had its legal department, the AGF imposed upon the electoral body by suggesting to it what steps to take to resolve complications he felt certain would accompany the death of Prince Audu. That advice immediately introduced self-fulfilling complications into a situation that could have been easily resolved without fuss had APC and INEC been altruistic. In addition, when a legislative stalemate occurred in the Kogi State House of Assembly, partly fuelled by the governor’s childish politics and incompetence, and the National Assembly intervened as it should, the AGF again needlessly waded in by advising the police to take steps that conflicted with that of the federal legislature. It quickly became obvious that once Prince Audu died, the federal government became interested in the political direction Kogi State was about to take.
To both the APC and the presidency, Hon Faleke, who was Prince Audu’s running mate, was viewed with suspicion, probably on account of the political tendency he belonged to in the party, his apparent loyalties which they find distasteful, and his ethnic background and religious persuasion that grate on their nerves and assault their hubris. The AGF’s interventions therefore appeared designed to thwart his emergence as the governor as a replacement for the departed standard-bearer. This may explain the puzzling and anomalous judgement given by the tribunal. Indeed, the judgement was a direct follow-up to the superfluous political interventions begun by the AGF. Unfortunately, given the smoking guns in the Kogi conundrum, even the presidency is directly fingered in the impasse. Not only did the AGF give the police the boldness to defy the National Assembly, he also emboldened INEC to sniff at the law, and incredibly and conspiratorially, someone later gave the Nigerian Army order to deploy soldiers in the Kogi House of Assembly to help five lawmakers entrench themselves against the majority 15.
Everything in Kogi, especially everything disconcerting and subversive since Mr Bello assumed office, has pointed in the direction of the federal government. The tribunal judgement is not an exception. The judgement is now unfortunately mired in politics. It may, in fact, be one of the most baffling judgements in recent memory. The judgement will of course be appealed, and the nation will wait to see how the Appeal Court will handle the case. At any rate, given the substance of the case, the enthusiasm with which the tribunal ignored facts in favour of fiction, the Appeal Court will need both valour and a miracle to endorse the lower court’s position.
Already, the country knows where the AGF stands on the Kogi affair, where sadly the presidency stands, why the APC acquiescently embraces a great moral wrong, and why and how the tribunal judged the case the way it did. What remains to be seen, in view of the great jurisprudential debacle in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River election petitions, is where the five justices expected to sit over the Kogi case in the Appeal Court will stand. Under Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the Supreme Court has noticeably and remarkably disavowed politics in the temple of justice. He and his fellow justices know instinctively what justice means to the aggrieved, to the oppressed, to the dispossessed. They have an eye on history, and on the future of the judiciary. The weight of the judiciary’s well-being rests on their shoulders.
Consequently, the eminent Supreme Court justices are unlikely to look at the frown on anyone’s face, including that of the presidency, in order to summon the moral girth to dispense justice. Their track records so far give hope and confidence that in the final analysis, irrespective of what the AGF, presidency, tribunal, APC, governor, Army, police and Kogi’s five subversive lawmakers do, justice will be served in the Kogi conundrum. It is indeed passing strange that both the presidency and the APC do not see the terrible damage the Kogi case has done to their image. Or perhaps they simply don’t care.
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