My view on S/Court’s ruling on Adamawa governorship primaries (II)

Also, the Supreme Court added that I did not pay for my Expression of Interest Form which further disqualified me from being a bona fide aspirant. But where did the Supreme Court get the idea that I did not pay for my forms? The answer is from the 1st Respondent’s Statement of Defence. Other than […]

Also, the Supreme Court added that I did not pay for my Expression of Interest Form which further disqualified me from being a bona fide aspirant. But where did the Supreme Court get the idea that I did not pay for my forms? The answer is from the 1st Respondent’s Statement of Defence. Other than the fact that this was not an issue in the appeal for determination (because I paid all my fees and the receipts are attached in my petition before the court), how come the court would see this false claim in the Statement of Defence but failed to also see in the same Statement of Defence the averment that only I and the 1st Defendant contested the primaries in which it claimed I was defeated? Clearly, the court merely chose what it wanted to see and left what it did not want to see. In the end, I was not heard.
The Supreme Court’s Judgment in my case is fundamentally faulty. It was the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa who once commented that the Supreme Court is supreme not because it is infallible; it is supreme because its determination is final. The erudite jurist may well have had my case in mind for making the comment. Although we are bound by this judgment of the Supreme Court, the judgment by itself is not beyond criticism. It fails to address the issues put forth for determination. It goes against the spirit of the law; it reverses the life-force of its previous judgments and it is a huge miscarriage of justice not only against me but also against thousands of PDP members in Adamawa state who were denied the right to participate in the gubernatorial nomination process of their party in the October 2011 Primaries. The judgment unwittingly winds back the hand of the cloak in entrenching internal democracy in Nigeria’s party politics. Its substance is of little value both to jurisprudence and to our polity.
To all intents and purposes, the Supreme Court is a three-in-one-court – first and foremost, a Court of Justice; then a Court of Law; and a Political Court. Ideally (at its best), its judgments should imbed the cause and course of these three elements. However, this judgment is empty in all – it has neither advanced the course of democracy, law nor justice. Instead, by the finality of its decision, it simply compromises democratic nomination process, basically abrogates the provisions of the law and unkindly metes grave public injustice on the society.
It is a simple fact that the central aim of any court judgment is to achieve justice to all parties concerned. Consequently, where a judgment fails to give justice then the law court loses its essence, and the principle of fiat justitia ruat caelum, the Latin maxim meaning “let justice be done even if heavens will fall” becomes equally hollow. With respect to the learned Justices, delivering a judgment without justice is like waging a war on a people without cause. It is my considered view that the court closed its eyes on the matter before it and determined it like that all the same. The Court dismissed my case not based on superior argument on the provisions of the law, but because it simply has the powers to do so. No more, no less!
In fact, it would have been more understandable if the Court had, in its capacity also as a Political Court, for example said that in view of the current security situation in Adamawa state, which is under state of emergency and that of the country generally, the Court denied my prayers. But for the Court to employ arguments of no substance to dismiss my appeal, ‘for lack of merit’ is the highest point of miscarriage of justice. To paraphrase Justice Oputa again, if the legislature metes out injustice, we run to the judiciary. If the executive metes out injustice, we run to the judiciary. But if the judiciary commits injustice, to whom do we run? The obvious answer to this rhetorical question is we run to God. While I run to God Almighty for redress, Nigeria’s society in the meantime is the biggest loser.
(Concluded.)
Dr Ardo is PDP chieftain in Adamawa State