Governorship, legislative election petitions should end at Appeal Court ― Falana

Describing Nigeria’s Supreme Court as the busiest in the world, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has asked that the Appeal Court be the final court for petitions arising from the governorship, National Assembly or State houses of Assembly elections.

Falana made this call while featuring on a morning programme of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), on Monday.

He noted that involvement of the Supreme Court in all sorts of cases, including customary cases, negatively affected the ability of the Supreme Court to deliver unquestionable judgments and make policy pronouncements on decisions of lower courts.

According to Falana, the situation was epitomised by the fact that many courts had not returned to their normal calendar because they were still dealing with cases relating to the 2019 general elections and will continue after the COVID-19 crisis.

To enable lawyers and judges to continue with their regular duties, Falana advocated for the engagement of retired judges to handle election petitions.

“Ours is the busiest Supreme Court in the world so it is difficult for our judges to really concentrate and render judgments that will not be questioned by anybody. Right now a case can travel from the Customary court to the Supreme Court.

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“We must allow some of these cases end at the High Court or Court of Appeal so that the Supreme Court will have to be busy dealing with judgments of the Court of Appeal and areas where the court will have to make policy pronouncements on decisions.

“I was strongly opposed to the idea of empowering the Supreme Court to get involved in governorship cases. In most parts of the world, it is not the business of the Supreme Court to get involved in local elections and that was the situation in Nigeria until 2011.

“All election petitions or appeals arising from governorship election petitions, legislative election petitions ended at the Court of Appeal. Among lawyers and judges, that is the thinking that we have to go to the status quo ante.

“I have also gone to suggest that we should take advantage of our pool of retired judges to handle election petitions so that regular courts can handle their matters. Since the 2019 general election, many of our courts are yet to return to their normal duties. Before the COVID-19 crisis, the Supreme Court was still dealing with some Appeals that has to do with elections. That shouldn’t happen,” Falana said.

In what he termed, “tribunalisation of Nigeria’s democracy”, he expressed sadness that the nation operated a system where winners of the election are not determined by people’s votes but by courts or tribunals.

He noted the need for the judiciary to be adequately funded, made independent especially through the examination of appointment of judges for the nation’s judicial system to improve.

“Right now, and this is very sad, results of the election are determined by the courts. It does not happen anywhere in the world. Nigeria records the highest number of pre-election cases and election petitions.

“We must begin now to begin to prepare for the 2023 election so that we can stop this dangerous practice and that is what I recently referred to as the tribunalisation of democracy in Nigeria. Let the people decide the winners of election and not the courts or tribunals,” Falana added.

Addressing the COVID-19 crisis in the country, Falana asked that the National Assembly amends the Quarantine Act while the National Health Insurance Act should be reviewed.

“I think the quarantine act will have to be amended. There was a move after the Ebola crisis to amend the law in 2013 but the National Assembly, as usual, forgot the law after the crisis was over.

“This is the time to look at that law in view of the crisis arising from the implementation of the regulations rolled out by the federal government. We need to review the National Health Insurance Act by emphasizing the improvement of our hospitals.

“We need to look at the National Health Insurance Act at the federal and state level to ensure that every Nigerian has health insurance so that at the end of the day, nobody will die of any preventable disease,” Falana said.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE