Going nowhere fast
In 2016, my friend, Solomon Apenja started a case at the Federal High Court in Kaduna, aiming to enforce the rights of traditional religious worshippers in Nigeria. To make a foolish story short, the case has not gone anywhere.
I’ll talk about the subject of the case in future, but for the record, Solomon is Catholic. The reason I brought this up is that I have two cases in court in Nigeria that I’ve given up on because of these kinds of inane delays. In Nigeria, most unfortunately, it is only political cases that get any traction. A country that stalls all other issues, but concentrates on, and fast-tracks only politics, will end up in the abyss. Oh, we’re already there aren’t we? I’m going to quote from SBM Intel’s newsletter from yesterday because reading that particular brief is the only way this judgement that was procured from some obscure court in Umuahia to delete Section 84 (12) of the Amended Electoral Act makes sense…
The president is adamant about Section 84 because it effectively constrains the APC’s ability to reward favoured political appointees with a shot at electoral office and vice versa. They are also unable to use their offices to influence the outcomes of either internal party elections or general elections. Under the new rule, cabinet members with a keen interest in electoral office like Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige and Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi will technically be prevented from participating in party primaries either as delegates or candidates unless they resign at least 30 days before the primaries. Already, some state governments and APC state chapters have put out communication directing appointees that are interested in contesting elections to resign before the primaries in compliance with the law. If true, this is most likely a good thing. It makes little sense for prospective aspirants to remain in government while campaigning for electoral positions. It is an uneven playing ground which gives them more of an edge over their counterparts outside the government. Such involvement in direct internal party affairs also breeds rancour at state levels where the members of the parties view such overt displays of interference as the tyranny of Abuja; a situation which has sometimes led to a fallout between members of the same administration. The president’s objection is supposedly based on constitutional grounds in that it already provides for the qualifications for candidacy and the Electoral Act has introduced a new requirement through the backdoor. The legislature is so far not buying that argument and given the variance between the upper legislative house and the judiciary, this matter is far from legally settled and might ultimately come down to the National Assembly going over a court decision to enforce its will. This is politics after all. We foresee a slew of lawsuits to test the proposition.
Basically, these chaps are interested in remaining in office and using their access to state resources to fund their campaigns. I found it interesting how speedily Malami has said that he would enforce this rather inane judgement. The same Malami that has supervised the disobedience of at least 40 court orders. And people expect such an unjust system to produce a stable and prosperous country?