ELECTION PETITIONS ARE HERE (PT 1)

By the electoral Act 2022, a candidate has 21 days after the declaration of the winner of the election by the electoral body to present his/her Petition before the Tribunal. There is no extension of time by the Court, and should a political party or candidate fail to do the needful (i.e challenge the election by filing its Petition within the 21 days) the window is permanently closed.

INEC announced and declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner of the presidential Election on the 1^st day of March, 2023, giving the two major aggrieved candidates up until the 21^st day of March, 2023 to bring their Petitions before the Tribunal. I must admit that I am surprised that both actually decided to wait till the very last day to bring their Petitions before the Court, maybe it was due to unforeseen circumstances. The important thing is that the Petition is before the Court, and the Respondents (the Presidents-Elects, APC and INEC) would have to file their “Answers” to both Petitions.

I would take the first Petition to hit the internet first. I promise to keep it short, simple and fun. I strongly believe that simplicity is intelligence. So, let’s dig in.

PETER OBI’S PETITION.

For a Petition that cost N5,430.00 (Five Thousand Four Hundred and Thirty Naira) to file, this Petition has raised too much dust on the internet. People discussing the effect of the Petition on the Respondents and the Election without waiting to see the Respondents’ “Answers” to the said Petition.

Permit me to start with this, in Obi’s Petition, there are 4 Respondents and they are: 1. Independent National Electoral Commission (1^st Respondent) 2. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu (2^nd Respondent) 3. Senator Shettima Kashim (3^rd Respondent) and 4. All Progressive Congress (4^th Respondent). The idea of 4 Respondents was surprising to me. This will be the first time that I would seeing a Petition that would have the vice-president elect listed as a Respondent on a Petition.  Even Atiku’s Petition did not have Shettima listed as a Respondent. This is because, both the President-elect and Vice-President elect are running on one ticket. You hit one, the other gets affected. In fact, that was what played out in the Bayelsa state election in 2019. When the APC Governor-elect of the state in the person of David Lyon won the election, but the Court had to nullify the election on the ground that his deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo had certain issues.

Grounds for Obi’s Petition.

For the sake of time, we would only discuss the first ground today, and discuss other grounds some other time. Now, a ground is the base  or foundation upon which you are bringing the Petition.

1. The 2^nd Respondent (Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu) was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the election:

This is the first ground. What the Petitioners’ lawyers are saying is that at the time of the Election, Tinubu was not even qualified to contest. Why? Because he didn’t have a qualified vice-president. This is pretty dicey, but let us try.  You have to understand that by virtue of section 142(1) of the 1999 Constitution “a candidate for an election to the office of President shall not be deemed to be validly nominated unless he nominates another candidate as his associate from the same political party for his running for the office of President, who is to occupy the office of Vice-President…”

Meaning, no Presidential candidate can be deemed to be validly nominated if he has no Vice-Presidential candidate.

According to the Petitioners, Senator Shettima Kashim became the Vice-Presidential candidate of the 4^th Respondent (APC) while he was still the Senatorial candidate of the APC for the Borno Central Senatorial Constituency in the same election. What then is the problem? Why are the Petitioners making a fuss about? Probably because section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022 provides that “Where a candidate knowingly allows himself to be nominated by more than one political party or in more than one constituency, his nomination shall be void”. Meaning an individual cannot be a candidate in two different constituencies at the same time in the same election.

Let us define constituency. A constituency is “an area whose voters elect a representative to a legislative body” or “a group of voters in a specific area who elect a representative in a legislative body”. I know what you are thinking already, that “a Constituency” has to do with the National Assembly (the Senate and the House of Representative) elections.  Well section 132 (4) of the 1999 Constitution begs to differ. That section provides that “For the purpose of an election to the office of President, the whole of the Federation shall be regarded as one constituency” This was the reason why Senator Ahmed Lawan had to withdraw his senate candidacy when he intended to participate in the APC presidential primaries, because in the presidential election “the whole country” is one constituency, and in senatorial election the “area you seek to represent” is another constituency.

According to these Petitioners, Senator Shettima Kashim allowed himself to be nominated by Senator Bola Tinubu on the 14^th day of July, 2022, while he was still APC Candidate for a Senatorial position, and only withdrew his senatorial candidacy on the 15^th of July, 2022.  Their submission is that by virtue of section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022, Shettima Kashim’s nomination as the vice-president candidate of APC is void, i.e, it never happened, and since no candidate can run for presidency without a vice-presidential candidate, then Senator Bola Tinubu was disqualified from the race and ought not to be allowed to contest in the first place. Just like the Bayelsa state case, where there is problem with the deputy/vice, the governor/president-elect has a problem too.

I understand this argument well enough, but I seek to ask if one day is enough. I mean, he was nominated on the 14^th of July, 2022, and withdrew his senatorial bid on the 15^th of July, 2022. Is one day enough to destroy all that APC had worked for? I know the truth is that Senator Shettima Kashim ought to have first withdrawn his senatorial candidacy before he was nominated. This is as usual, up to the Supreme Court to decide.