WAEC has set a sinister precedent in Ekiti

54 days after adjourning for judgement, the Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday eventually awarded victory to Governor AbiodunOyebanji and his deputy, Mrs. Monisade Christiana Afuye in the judicial challenge mounted against their election by a former governor of the state and governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Engineer Segun Oni.

At least, the wait is over and to everyone’s relief, the petition didn’t become functus officio by the reason of effluxion of time, considering that the 180-day constitutional shelf-life, was to terminate on January 2, 2023. Though some top operatives of the Judiciary worried a bit about the delay, nearly all, agreed that the Tribunal led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, from Benue Judicial Division, had done no wrong by choosing just 48 hours to the expiry date of the petition, to deliver its judgement. Many politicians in the state, however didn’t share that sentiment. The unproven assumption is that the long wait was to create a window for negotiation.

This guesswork is backed by the reasoning that the entire judgement took about three hours, with doubters arguing that what took just three hours to read, shouldn’t have taken 54 days to write. Well, I hold a slightly divergent opinion. For quality sake, a two-hour paper can take two months to write, for someone given to scholarship and engaging literature review. If one’s life depends on it, writing an ordinary C.V could take weeks. Sloppiness isn’t a virtue.

However, without assuming anything, the reasons for the outcome, offered by the Tribunal, do not suggest a detailed engagement with something new or groundbreaking, in jurisprudence. If anything, the judgement detracts from the Supreme Court’s precedents on the main planks of the matter and I won’t be surprised if Kpochi and his team, end up, being tongue-lashed by the two appellate courts, where the petition is reportedly moving to.

The apex court’s precedents on Governor Mai Mala Buni as a necessary party in nomination cases involving candidates of APC and the stated implications of certificate issues, were the basis for many bookies to conclude that a new governor was due in the state last Thursday.

The case seemed straightforward. Supreme Court had pronounced on the reliefs being sought and the Tribunal was expected to toe the line of the superior court. But nothing is ever straight and forward with the law and its interpreters. While it is going to be grossly unfair hoisting the Nigerian Judiciary as the worst of its kind, it is on record that election petition adjudication hasn’t really been our Judiciary’s strong point. Apart from the poor public rating of the election assignment, many judicial officers have also brought the bar so low, in their bid to do the bidding of politicians in election petition cases. This is incontrovertible, considering the number of judges so far sacked by the National Judicial Council for bribery.

Those pushing the bribery theory in the Ekiti matter are also alluding to the circumstantial “evidence” of a party in the matter, already slaughtering celebration cows, before the Tribunal rose, suggesting that the judgement had leaked and the winning party, had advance notice of victory, hence the commencement of the celebration, before the victory was announced.

I don’t want to dwell in the realm of conjectures and circumstantial “evidence”. If parties in the matter, believe the Tribunal was induced to miscarry justice, NJC is the proper place to distill their grievances.

Historically, the petitioner wasn’t favoured for victory. It is on record that of all the governors, judicially-deposed and enthroned, none had ever been at the level of an election petition tribunal. It has always been at the appellate level, Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, though Oni can’t be vilified for being optimistic. Since his petition is still alive, he can go ahead to pitch his case to the two superior courts.

But there is a worrying dimension to Oni’s petition, beyond who wins or who wins not. In the course of proving his case that the certificate presented by Oyebanji’s deputy was flawed, Oni’s attempt at getting the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to be definite about the GCE result presented by Ms. Afuye, was systemically rebuffed on some flippant legal grounds, which is very shameful, for an examination body that wants to be taken seriously.

Using the instrumentality of the Freedom of Information Act, the petitioner asked WAEC to simply say a Yes or No, to whether MonisadeChristianahAfuye, now deputy governor of Ekiti State, is the same MonisadeAdegboye, which the body allegedly issued a GCE certificate in 1978. Even with the limited technology available to the regional body, since it is always taking Africa about a generation to catch up with her peer-continents, that request should not be difficult to grant, at least, for the sake of institutional integrity. Again, coming out clearly would have been a powerful statement that it is blind to status, in protecting its brand.

But WAEC threw the golden opportunity away, on the altar of class-politics. The body didn’t only shun the subpoena issued on it by the Tribunal, it literally pissed on the FoI Act, with its response to the request.

Its documented response read, “Please be informed that West African Examination Council (WAEC) is unable to accede to your request pursuant to Section 24 (1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, on privacy of the owner of the certificate.”

And there is supposed to be a legal unit in that institution!

Afuye stopped being a private citizen the moment she stepped out for public office as an elected representative of the Ekiti people. She willingly chose to become public commodity and surrender herself to scrutiny. How can the academic certificate she presented for qualification to run, remain private documents after submitting same to a public institution like INEC?

Will WAEC have the ‘liver’ as street lingo will capture bravura, to give similar response to the Department of State or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission if the GCE certificate is demanded for some forensic analysis in a fraud probe? Did WAEC willingly cover up examination fraud and certificate forgery because a ‘big’ Nigerian is involved? The examination body even called the bluff of the Judiciary! What impunity! Institutions keep disregarding the Judiciary because they know they can get away with it. Until the Judiciary opens a ‘black’ book for those who disregard lawful orders and ensures such blacklisted individuals and institutions do not get to be heard at all, in all matters involving them going forward, until the subsisting orders are complied with, there won’t be sanity.