The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)
is more or less horrified but altogether not shocked or disappointed with the
outcome of the long running political litigation before the presidential
election tribunal in Abuja that was filled by the former vice president of the
federal Republic of Nigeria Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic
party against the incumbent president of the All Progressives Congress Major
General Muhammadu Buhari as he then was.
We are not surprised that the presidential election
tribunal has wrongly confirmed the overwhelming perception of most critical
minded Nigerians that nothing good will ever come from the current contraption
we call the Nigerian judicial system. The Nigerian judicial system as it is currently
constituted is dysfunctional, is compromised, is tainted politically, is
populated and driven physically by the people with wrong mindset who are not
patriotic, who are not committed to the real essence of justice as it should
be. It looks like the members of this presidential election petition
tribunal have displayed the highest character of haters of justice, they are
not nationalists, they are not statesmen, and they are not patriotic. The
hierarchical structure of both the Court of Appeal that produced the panelists
and the Supreme court of Nigeria is pre-arranged and pre-established to service
the litigation interests of All Progressives Congress as it concerns the 2019
election that remains substantially manipulated and the real results stolen and
diverted by the compromised Independent National Electoral and awarded to the
incumbent President. History will inevitably be unkind to the current heads
of the hierarchical structures of INEC; Court of Appeal and even the Supreme Court
of Nigeria which is choreographed already to validate the illegality and the
fraud that has happened today as the verdict of the PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
PETITION TRIBUNAL (PEPT) in Abuja. The President of the Court of Appeal who is
married to a Senator produced in this disputed election by APC has to
resign. The Chief justice of Nigeria should resign so these Court systems can
be reorganized so the judiciary can begin a recovery process since this current
administration has mortgaged the conscience of the judiciary by illegally
removing the former Chief justice of Nigeria using an exparte order
obtained fraudulently.
First and foremost, it is inconceivable that the
judiciary would close her eyes to the fact that there is a lingering debate and
argument strong enough to disqualify one of the candidates which is the exact
WHEREABOUTS of the secondary school certificate. If the constitution says you
need at least a (secondary) school certificate, what the constitution means is
that the secondary school certificate is the minimum benchmark. The
constitution should have said once you are educated you are qualified to run
for political office of the president of the country. The constitution
mentioned as a fact that if school certificate which is the general name for
secondary school certificate and if that is the case, it means that the
presidential election tribunal has done a very shameful job and generations to
come will attach their names to such history of infamy.
Secondly, we are highly disappointed in the first
instance by the dismissal of the application that was filled by the petitioner
seeking to get the Supreme Court's nod to compel INEC to allow the petitioners
to supervise the server. INEC clearly told Nigerians that they have a server
before the disputed poll why did the court not allow the petitioner to at least
have access to the server? Which means The Supreme Court Have foreclosed the
possibility of the petitioner getting justice From the court below, it is
unfortunate Though it's not shocking, it's not disappointing. But I think this
ruling which has definitely gone in favor of the incumbent president is not
rational, Is not ethically correct, is not factually accurate, is jaundiced Is
Something That is built on falsehood. Maybe we have to ask questions if these judges
were subjected to some kind of pressure or some kind of threat from any
quarters? Because Nigerians don't understand the reason why a clear case
of “show us your certificate” was not resolved. So this is a very terrible case
and is a case that is attempting to institutionalize lack of respect for
competencies and merit. Knocking off these two key claims of the petitioner has
rendered the remaining claims mere academic exercise and it is a waste of
time to watch as the panelists shamelessly go on to enact this episode of
national shame and infamy. It is finished.
If our Constitution which is supreme law is saying that
for a person to run for a specific political office, the person must have been
educated up to secondary school level and you the judges are here saying it
doesn't matter whether the person shows you his certificate it is a fallacy.
The essence of certificate is a proof to make a claim credible otherwise
everybody can just go to school without bothering to go back for the
certificate.
Why you have a certificate is to show anybody or
authority that you actually proceeded and you were educated in that kind of
educational system. But for the PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PETITION TRIBUNAL
(PEPT) to now say that the man whose qualification is been challenged by
the petitioner has a military certificate he doesn't need to show them a
secondary school certificate is as good as saying if you managed to manipulate
your way into the university admission process with a forged certificate and
not detected and you go on to obtain a degree certificate and intends to run
for election but doesn't want to be discovered for the initial forgery
for instance this particular ruling completely has validated all the
certificates that are being paraded by people who forged their secondary school
certificates to proceed further to obtain higher qualifications especially if
they seek to run for office of President or any elective office under the
extant constitution. All that the person need to do is to tender any kind of
certificates after verbally saying that you are educated up to school
certificate or you produce some dubious photographic evidence of your
attendance at a secondary school. If I may ask, which educational
standardization body has validated the military certificates that are now
adjudged higher than a school certificate which is our own secondary school
system? That's one of the implications of this judgment that May be people
didn’t really understand. I think is quite unfortunate. This is the day the Court
of Appeal has authorized people to simple make claims of possession of
certificate from secondary school without displaying a valid copy.
Even if Atiku is not so sure of getting justice at the
Supreme Court, which we think he
will not get, he needs to go further to test that angle concerning the
certificate issue because it's quiet important for Nigerians to know except if
he decides to leave it like that, is going to be the law of the country. We
think it has to be challenged one way or the other."
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko
NATIONAL COORDINATOR.
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