Since Nigeria became a sovereign country, 10 presidential contests have taken place, producing seven winners; Presidents Shehu Shagari (1979-1983), Moshood Abiola, (the only one not officially sworn in), Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), Umaru Yar’Adua (2007-2010), Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015), Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023) and the incumbent, Bola Tinubu (May 29, 2023-date.
During the interspersing interregna, there were various military regimes, starting with the first coup of January 15, 1966, eventually racking up a total of 29 years out of Nigeria’s 63 as an independent country, demonstrating how and what political instability of the past, has cost the nation.
Thankfully, the ruling political class, despite its disparate entrenched interests, seems to have come to some kind of understanding that the running 4th Republic must survive. So far, despite a lot of acrimony in the polity and our politics, the Republic is still standing and even running, chalking up 24 unbroken years of participatory democracy and civil rule.
Whatever anyone may say about the gains and pains of this Republic, it has already broken a record in stability and endurance, and millions of the citizenry are, thankfully, firmly standing behind its continuation. Kudos to resilient Nigerians.
Of course, politics has to be acrimonious because it is about power, which is believed not served a la carte, a refrain of the current President. Last year in the build-up to the presidential election, he even famously said, “political power is not going to be served in a restaurant. They don’t serve it a la carte. At all cost(s), fight for it, grab it and run with it”.
Since he grabbed it in February as President-elect and ran with it on May 29 to become Nigeria’s 6th democratically-elected President, the polity has known no peace because those that fought against him for power and lost are still fighting to see if they can win it back, through the Judiciary.
During the fighting, some unscrupulous elements have singled the Judiciary out for destruction. That can’t be a sensible way to fight for what you couldn’t snatch and run with, in an open election. It is like saying if we couldn’t snatch it in an open contest, we can snatch it, bulldozing the Judiciary. How does that translate to real justice?
Turning to Judiciary for help means you are helpless against the one who prevailed in the fight to gain power. You don’t destroy something or someone who you think can help to gain a lost Paradise. You give support for strength, to enjoy greater support and strength from such an ally.
If you are fighting your only hope of ever getting close to having what you think you lost unfairly, how can that be sensible? Except it is the winner that is attacking the Judiciary, putting the lives of the family members of the judicial officers on election duties, at risk, as a way of further uniting the arm of the government against the election losers and their supporters who should ordinarily be the prime suspect, the federal government, should have long gone beyond getting offensive billboards uprooted and dismantled.
By now, officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and Ministry of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who granted official permission to have the offensive, threat-filled billboards erected dangerously close to the Court of Appeal, where the presidential election petitions are being handled, should be in custody, facing interrogation. It is not enough to dissolve the advertising board and dismantle those billboards, threatening judicial officers on official duties, that they and by extension, their families, are being watched.
Definitely, FCT top officials will know those who applied for permit to erect those billboards, which should make it easier for security agents to follow up, except if there are insiders in public service who are sympathisers of those invoking the threats.
It is also not enough to assume those behind it are supporters of a particular candidate. A thorough investigation should be carried out, and culprits unmasked and punished to encourage judicial officers nationwide to do their jobs without fear of becoming targets of extremists, who could put them and their families in harm’s way.
Does it occur to security agents that in the course of erecting those billboards, a new wave of insecurity could be executed in the Federal Capital, by simply planting bombs underneath and around those billboards, especially those dangerously close to the Court of Appeal, and getting them detonated when proceedings are ongoing, to further strike fear into the soul of the jurists?
Those given the latitude to put those billboards up, almost unhindered in the Abuja metropolis, could have done much more without any kind of inhibition. Limiting their campaign of hate against the justices, only to mobilise public opinion against them, must even be seen as God still in control. With so much space conceded to them in the name of freedom of speech, of association and of self-expression, they could have practically blown up the Court of Appeal alongside countless innocent souls and walked away whistling.
As the justices on the panel put their considered opinions together, security around them, must be compact. Their families too, must have round-the-clock state protection. That is how it is done in sane clime with insane politics like the one being witnessed in Nigeria. There were nine presidential contests before the last. Except the world comes to a sudden end, there would be more in the foreseeable future.
Somehow, someone would always win, whether given, taken or grabbed.
Why should the Judiciary become the one to be destroyed when it wasn’t part of the fight where someone overpowered others? If those who lost think Judiciary is able to redress whatever injustices allegedly done to them on the battlefield, then they must allow judicial operators to do their job in an atmosphere of tranquillity. That should be a decent demand to a justice-seeking mob.
Emman Ola is a public analyst.
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