By Demola Akinyemi, Ilorin
An Ilorin based Constitutional lawyer, Professor Yusuf Olaolu Ali(SAN) yesterday tasked the National Assembly as a matter of urgency to amend section 136 of Electoral Act that empowers the courts or tribunals to declare anybody as winner of any election petitions in the country.
The renowned senior lawyer and Kuliya Ngeri of Ilorin noted that it’s an aberration that five or ten millions votes of the electorates should be surrendered at the mercy of three people to upturn, saying that it is undemocratic.
He posited that such amendments would also drastically reduce the rates at which politicians challenge election results after elections.
Ali spoke with journalists in Ilorin on Tuesday on the sideline of the National Assembly call for public hearing on the Amendment of Electoral Act.
According to him:, “We should not give the franchise of five millions or 10 millions votes to just three people to just upturn and make the declaration, and I think this is the first thing the National assembly must do in order to protect the democratic governance and sanctity of the nation’s electoral act”.
The legal luminary explained that, “In the aspect of elections debacle, people should go back to the electorate instead of the court or tribunal to declare such candidate as the winner of that poll”.
According to him, “Most people have negative perceptions about our courts and these perceptions in Nigeria today arose as a result of the courts decisions on electoral matters in the country”.
He said, “Most of the adverse comments was also the involvement of the court in the electoral disputes in Nigeria . So it is quite necessary not to only treat the symptoms but also we must treat the disease.
“The most problematic to my mind is about the involvement of the courts in electoral disputes resolutions that gives the power to the courts, tribunals and the courts generally.
“If anyone challenges elections under Section 136 of Electoral Act and finds not to be qualified or didn’t score the required number of votes or didn’t score the required lawful votes at the elections then you declared the person that came second in the elections as duly elected, I think that is problematic.
“That is the reason that some people believe that there is a lot of arithmetic at work before the court so that the politicians can achieve their main purpose especially for those politicians that came second in that poll.
“And let me say that we have a lot of instances of those that came second or third that have been declared as governor of a state in Nigeria”.
Ali added, “To me the solution to that now is that let’s remove the power of the court from declaring anybody as winner. If you bring elections petition and you succeed, people should go back to the electorate.
“We should not give the franchise of five million, 10million votes to just three people to upturn and make the declaration and I think that is the first thing we must hold on to , so as to protect the democratic governance and sanctity of the nation’s electoral act.
“Hence, there should be amendment on section 136 of electoral act to remove the power of the court or either the tribunals from declaring anybody as the winner of the elections”.
The senior lawyer noted further that, “Once you succeed in your election petitions, you should go back to the electorate because you start to questions it actually whether there is actually a democracy when 25m people will vote and three persons would sit, not alone set aside the votes and declared the person that have been rejected at the poll as the sole winner of that poll.
“And my own sense of democracy and justice is a bit affected. I want to appeal to the NA to have courage to do it. The power of the court or tribunal to declare anybody as winner should be removed. You will be surprised at the magical thing that would happen. The challenges of elections petitions would reduce dramatically.”
Ali also urged the national assembly to amend the section of the electoral act that allow the court to interfere on the internal crisis of the political parties in the country, saying that, “If you join a political party and it starts to maltreat you, then you can leave that party and join another one without any court interference”.
Ali also defended the cost of candidates going back to the electorates and INEC for another round of election saying no amount is too much to put the country’s democracy on a strong foundation.
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