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Governor Wamakko's Skewed Judicial Victory By Danjabo Usman Abdullahi
As an indigene of Sokoto state, I have keenly observed that political power that is acquired legitimately through peoples' mandate entrust fairness, understanding and commitment in building a prosperous society. This premise is undoubtedly valid as far as history and politics of Sokoto and the Caliphate is concerned. Thus, the on-going political blunders in the state are but an indication that either the current leadership in the state lacks peoples' mandate or a mafia-type clique is holding the state to ransom or both.
Consider, for instance, how the aforementioned factors came to influence the verdicts of the state Election Petition Tribunal. The judgements clearly hang the ¡¥mandate question' on some politicians as well as exposing the hidden agenda of the so-called Sokoto elders. No doubt, the judgement shall remain one of the greatest of miscarriage of justice ever known in the history of the Seat of the Caliphate.
By my background as a Law student, I am made to maintain confidence in Judiciary and the integrity of our learned justices. All along therefore my expectation was that the election tribunal would be fair, impartial and neutral to the cases brought before it. Alas! The judgement of Honourable Justice M. N. Oniyangi and his co learned men of the bench on the Sokoto state Governorship petitions have dented the image of the Nigeria's judiciary. It is however our hope that the Superior Court would restore our confidence that the judiciary stands for justice, fairness and equity.
My opinion of this case is based on my participation in almost all the court proceedings since the beginning to the day of judgement. From the thinking among the electorate and opinion leaders in Sokoto State currently is that President Umar Musa Yar'Adua's much orchestrated electoral reform may have hit the rocks, judging from the way and manner Governor Aliyu Wamakko rode on the backs of the people and snatched the seat of government in the state. A cursory look at the judgement delivered by Honourable Justice M. N. Oniyangi and his colleagues at the Sokoto State Election Tribunal leaves much to be desired.
As if borrowing the words of Richard Wright, renowned US novelist of blessed memory, the question on the lips of keen watchers of Sokoto Politics is: How can the law contradict the lives of millions of people and hopes to be administered successfully for the sake of posterity? People like Daniel Webster opined that ¡§Justice as the greatest interest of man on the earth, which carry the ligament of holding civilized beings and civilized nations together¡¨.
Were it not for similar rulings hailed and described by the Nigerian people as a triumph for democracy in states like Rivers, Kebbi, Adamawa, etc., the Sokoto electorates would have swallowed Honourable Justice Oniyangi's bitter pill and taken the judgement with calm. But here is a case replete with yawning flaws that painstakingly created more questions than answers.
Irked by what political observers in Nigeria described as fragrant and wrongful misplacement of justice, there are glaring indications that in spite of the tribunal's judgement, Governor Wamakko and his team are having sleepless nights, battling for credibility.
The case in point is that given the mountain of evidences against the respondent in person of Wamakko in respect of how he warmed his way into the Sokoto State Government House, the spirit of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state would continue to haunt him, should he eventually have his way because of his betrayal.
As if such unfortunate scenario is not enough, Honourable Oniyangi's tribunal which gave Wamakko a clean bill of health is receiving widespread criticism from the Sokoto State electorates and other respected luminaries across the country, which undoubtedly is against the will of people. Thus, the judgement according to political pundits is anything but a disaster in judicial equity, which is why majority of Sokoto people are aggrieved, insisting that Honourable Justice Oniyangi failed woefully to do justice to the petition. The judgement was the greatest miscarriage of justice at a time when the judiciary is believed to be playing its constitutional role of ensuring that the rule of law prevails through out the country; more so when steps are being taken by the Yar'Adua administration to reform the nation's electoral laws.
A popular judicial paradigm holds that the most important application of the rule of law must be that which stands at the centre, following without fear or favour, established procedural steps for clear-cut adjudication. This standpoint throws up Honourable Oniyangi's tribunal to answer fundamental questions on how he arrived at the judgement delivered on Monday October 29, 2007.
The tribunal under the chairmanship of Oniyangi knowingly or unknowingly overlooked the Peoples Democratic Party's belated replacement of its original candidate with Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, a move proven beyond all reasonable doubts by the petitioners that it was contrary to the rules and regulations guiding the electorate process.
Perhaps to serve as a reminder, the petitioners in proving their case that Aliyu Magatakarda was not qualified to vie for the governorship seat, the following evidences were tendered before the tribunal as record of the petition and judgement elaborated:
„h Form CF001 deposed to by Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko on 13/02/07, where Wamakko, the 1st respondent failed to give the particulars of his membership of PDP, since he, Wamakko, did not state his membership card number in the column provided for it;
„h A letter dated 05/02/07 from PDP to INEC, substituting the party's original candidate with Wamakko, also failed to comply with the requirement of cogent and verifiable reasons under section 34 of the Electoral Act;
„h Attendance register of the meeting of ANPP in which Wamakko wrote his name and signed as a member of the party on 07/02/07, despite the fact that entries had closed for the governorship election;
„h Minutes of the meeting of ANPP caucus held on 07/02/07, referred to above, wherein Wamakko, while commenting on EFCC's list of indicted politicians was quoted as saying that the entire EFCC saga is just that of a vendetta carefully organised by the PDP, urging members of ANPP to regard the entire exercise as mere diversionary tactics aimed at distracting ANPP's attention from the governorship elections.
In the minutes in question, Wamakko was in full support of a World Press Conference for propaganda purposes. At this stage, General Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP's presidential flag bearer, hailed Wamakko for his suggestion, without having an inkling that Wamakko was playing the role of a fifth columnist. This was because PDP had already forwarded Wamakko's name as its governorship candidate precisely two days earlier;
„h Evidence which gave Wamakko away was a story carried by Leadership Newspaper dated 13th February 2007, with the headline ¡¥Tension mounts in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara as Aliero lures ANPP Guber Candidates to PDP'. That was the last straw that broke Wamakko's back, because it was proved that up to the February 13, 2007, when nomination had closed, Wamakko had not joined PDP, let alone get his nomination to run on the platform of PDP. And to add insult to injuries, Wamakko's manipulated nomination form bore Senator Bello J. Gada as his running mate.
It is against this suspicious background that tongues are now waging in Sokoto state that Wamakko snatched his governorship mandate from the people. The argument is that the current Deputy Governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Mukhtari Shagari was not nominated in the first place by Wamakko as stipulated by the Electoral Act. And considering the fact that PDP did not sponsor Senator Bello J. Gada, earlier nominated by Wamakko on the platform of ANPP, there is every reason to believe that Governor Wamakko's mandate is trailed by gross misconduct and manipulation.
Pressing their points home, the petitioners also tendered Receipt No. 002187251, showing that Mukhtari Shagari ran without Wamakko's consent that could have qualified Shagari as his (Wamakko's) running mate. To justify this, PDP bent the rules of the game by urging Shagari to hurriedly swear to an affidavit of personal particulars of an individual seeking election on April 27, 2007, thirteen days after the election. This, the petitioners pointed is enough proof for the tribunal to declare the Sokoto governorship election null and void because it went contrary to Section 187 of the 1999 Constitution as well as Section 32 of the Electoral Act 2006.
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Jos and President of Institute of Governance and Social Research (IGSR), Isawa Elaigwu, succinctly captured the mad rush among politicians for elective positions by hook or crook, just like that of Mukhtari Shagari, when he declared that ¡§democratic principles of authority, the rule of law, legitimacy, choice and accountability must take the centre stage in every democratic process¡¨.
Professor Elaigwu who was the guest lecturer at the Nigerian Defence Academy Commandants' Annual Lecture 2007, dwelt on the challenges before Nigerian politicians in the on-going democratization process. Said he, ¡§Unlike his party (PDP), President Yar'Adua has accepted that the last elections were flawed, even though he believed he would still have won, without these. He has, therefore, set up an Electoral Reform Committee to make recommendations for comprehensive reform in that area. Thus far, Yar'Adua has been good in dealing with inherited problems. It is not clear yet what his positive forward movement could look like. There is still some fluidity and lack of focus, in spite of his seven-point agenda¡¨.
If Professor Elaigwua's fears and concern about the flaws of last elections are anything to go by, then the likes of Hon. Justice Oniyangi and other legal luminaries who seem to have turned a blind eye to the rules of the game, in view of what was dished out by the Sokoto Election Tribunal, the entire learned members of the judiciary need a rethink so as to give to Caesar what is Caesar's. President Yar'Adua have people like Justice Oniyangi and his co- travellers in mind when he declared at the opening of Judges conference that ¡§It is important that the Judiciary does not fall into the temptation of delivering decision merely because it appears to be the popular one at the point in time¡¨.
The mess created as result of references on this singular judgement of Sokoto State to majority of the students of law and practical lawyers are too ignominious. Justice according to one legal writer is ¡§the condition in which the individual feel capable of identifying with societal order, believe in it and respect its standards¡¨.
The food for thought to some of our elders in Sokoto State who were accused of influencing Oniyangi's Judgement is to keep away from further interference on the issues that are capable of creating discomforts among all the stakeholders, which will tarnishing the image of the state and ridicule the judiciary. Our leaders need to know that it is the safest way to regard justice to be done once it is done, according to armpit of the law not by dictating the outcome.
The Judiciary, regardless of the activities of crocked politicians, remains the last hope for the Nigerian People. Consequently, Hon. Oniyangi and other members of the Sokoto Tribunal should go back into their closets and call a spade a spade, for the sake of posterity, otherwise the present generation and generations yet unborn will hold them responsible for standing justice on its head.
Usman Abdullahi Danjabo Faculty of Law Congo Campus, ABU Zaria,
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