By Sunday Onyemaechi Eze
There is no end in sight to the crisis rocking the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Today, the party once standing on the podium of excellence is a shadow of itself. After the missed opportunities for political re-engineering, realignment and consolidation leading to the fatal blow it suffered in the 2015 general elections, the party is currently enmeshed in an endless leadership tussle. The often breached principles, ideologies and the spirit upon which the party was constructed are threatened more than ever as the umbrella is torn to shreds. The unabated supremacy battle between the two factions of the party led by Senators Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi is severely wearing the once acclaimed biggest ruling party in Africa out. Several conflicting court judgments on the authentic chairman of the party had been delivered for and or against the two factions. This has led to various interpretations to suit personal or group interests. The convention of the party slated to hold twice this year was put on hold owing to this internal political wrangling. A house divided by itself cannot stand. It will collapse beyond redeemable measures.
The crisis in the party gets complicated as the Ondo gubernatorial election inches closer with the judiciary assuming the role of a willing tool for abetting the already escalated confusion. With deep financial pockets, procurement of ridiculous judgments conferring legitimacy on the contending factions has assumed the order of the day. This has adversely affected the independence, neutrality, legal perspective of INEC and must have influenced its decision making processes in Edo and currently Ondo elections. The cash-and-carry interlocutory or perpetual injunctions and judgments procured by individuals or groups have exacerbated the allegation of sleaze leveled against the judiciary in recent times and further corroborated the reason behind the recent arrest of some senior jurists on account of corruption by the Directorate of State Services. The National Judicial Council (NJC) has to urgently put a mechanism in place to check corruption in the judiciary. Judges understand jurisdictional echelon and status of every court but chose to apply technicalities to compound matters before them. Consequently, courts of coordinate jurisdiction should also be barred from giving conflicting judgments on same or related matter to ensure sanity.
The list of qualified candidates for the upcoming Ondo State governorship election released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) especially as it affects the candidates of the PDP has raised vital questions on the legal sagacity and sanguinity of the commission. The height of the drama culminated with the surprise release of the name of Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate of the PDP. This has far-reaching adverse effect on the nation’s journey to enthroning healthy and enduring democratic processes. The primary election that produced Eyitayo Jegede was held at the stipulated time frame, in Ondo with INEC in attendance in compliance with the provisions of Section 32(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act, 2006, while Jimoh Ibrahim had his outside the state, out of the stipulated time frame and in flagrant abuse of the Electoral Act, 2006. One of the recommendations of the Electoral Act for accepting candidates for elections into various political offices is that the primary elections must be held within a certain time frame, at the constituencies or states where the election is scheduled to take place. There was no cogent reason to warrant the movement of Jimoh Ibrahim’s primary election to another state either. One was at a loss why INEC chose to recognise he, who it was clear did not substantially comply with the Electoral Act.
In the case between Senator Ifeanyi Ararume versus Charles Ugwuh, PDP and INEC, the Supreme Court had laid to rest the requisite processes leading to party nomination of elective officers and on whose authority it resides to submit qualified candidates for elective positions. The Supreme Court in its judgement on the matter ruled that Ararume was the PDP candidate for the governorship elections in Imo State and ordered INEC to act accordingly. That decision of the Supreme Court closed the chapter of electoral impunity perpetrated by politicians and foreclosed the penchant of winning through the back doors of the courts a political medal one should have obtained through the ballot and instrumentality of the parties.
It was recently reported that Jimoh Ibrahim personally took a court order delivered in his favour as the candidate of the PDP by the Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice Okon Abang to INEC for enforcement but was turned down on the premise that implementation of court orders are not enforced with the self-help of those concerned or beneficiaries of such orders. However, Jimoh Ibrahim later accused the Directorate of Legal Services of INEC of demanding $1 million dollars before the order will be executed. On the other hand, an Ondo High Court presided by Justice Kumuyi had also ordered INEC not to replace Jegede’s name already with the commission with another. Why INEC chose to comply with the Abuja High Court order and ignored that of Ondo is a question for another day. Is INEC running away from contempt of the court by thinking that the best is to satisfy the legal requirement of Jimoh Ibrahim at the moment by obeying the order brought before it and probably wait to comply with another one overriding this? Should one conclude that Jimoh Ibrahim has complied with the demand of INEC by giving away the above alleged sum thereby succeeding in blackmailing the commission into accepting his candidature? It was a waste of time, energy and effort for INEC to have relied only on the pressure of external forces or the decision of the Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice Okon Abang to affirm the candidature of Ibrahim.
Eze writes from Kaduna