Former President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigeria to look towards the judicial models of Francophone African countries who utilise specialised constitutional courts for political matters.
“If the Supreme Court would continue to be the terminal court for governors’ elections, then they don’t need to go through the lower tribunal so that it would just be one step,” he added.
Jonathan criticised the multi-layer election tribunal system in Nigeria, urging the national assembly to review the country’s electoral litigation process.
Jonathan spoke in Abuja on Wednesday during the 70th birthday and book launch of Gbenga Daniel, senator for Ogun east.
The ex-president called for the establishment of a “constitutional court” to streamline election-related cases, adding that this would reduce the burden on the nation’s political system.
The former Bayelsa governor as stating that the current three-tier litigation process for governorship elections — from the tribunal to the court of appeal, and finally the supreme court — has become ineffectual.
Reflecting on the evolution of Nigeria’s electoral laws, he recalled a 2011 case where a gubernatorial candidate lost his seat due to a technicality regarding the colour of ink used by voters.
“I remember a particular case where someone lost an election as a governor because the law then stipulated the use of red ink to tick voters’ names,” he said.
“In an entire senatorial district, they were not provided with red pens and used available black or green pens.
“As a result, those votes were cancelled. The appeal court upheld this, even though the lower tribunal felt that a tick is a tick.”
He said while the national assembly later amended the law to allow governorship cases to reach the supreme court to prevent such injustices, they failed to take care of the length of litigation.
“I believe the ideal thing to do, which I was considering when I was in office, was to make sure that it’s only one tribunal that listens to any litigation relating to politics.
“This is done, especially in the Francophone countries in Africa. They have constitutional courts, anything about elections, only the constitutional courts that take decisions.”
Jonathan also challenged the judiciary to be firm in its decision-making to sanitise the nation’s politics.
“Politics is like soccer and the judges are the referees. If the referee looks the other way, players will break legs or score with their hands,” he added.
Extolling the virtues of the celebrant, Jonathan described Daniel as a “constructive leader” who brought an engineering mindset into the “murky waters of politics”.
He recalled how Daniel was spontaneously selected as the south-west zonal coordinator for his 2015 presidential campaign because “of his ability to cut across political divides and his inherent credibility”.
“I can attest to the fact that he is a man that really thinks like an engineer — very constructive and dedicated,” Jonathan added.