Last November, two significant developments occurred in the United States of America and Nigeria. The first happened during the presidential election which climaxed with an unexpected win by billionaire businessman, Donald Trump, who was considered a political outsider given that his entire career before the presidential campaign had been in business. Although there were tense moments during the campaigns and debates, the exercise was instructive in its purposefulness and smooth institutional processes, even in a situation where Hilary Clinton won the popular vote while Trump won the decisive Electoral College vote. Indeed, the election was a very close race.
The election was also characterized by court cases as each party endeavoured to ensure that suspected malpractices did not go unaddressed. In a case in Nevada, a judge denied the Donald Trump campaign’s motion for an immediate order to preserve early voting records in a lawsuit filed after a polling station was kept open too late. Judge Gloria Sturman refused to issue an order in the case, saying that act could make the names of poll workers discoverable and open election workers up to harassment. The speed with which the case was heard and disposed further buttressed the general concern to preserve the electoral process from interference. It is no wonder that results of elections are often settled before the conclusion of the vote tally.
In Nigeria, the Supreme Court was forced to address the ugly situation created by contradictory orders at the High Court level, and to abort the manipulation of the judiciary by the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State which sought to frustrate the governorship candidature of Mr Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), who had emerged from the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the party in a primary election monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Few days to the election, the case surrounding the authentic governorship candidate of the PDP was postponed indefinitely by the Court of Appeal when members of the Sheriff faction approached the Supreme Court for some nebulous reliefs even while the lower court had not yet delivered its judgement on the case before it. Alarmed by this trifling with the temple of justice, the Supreme Court had to intervene by authorizing the Court of Appeal to proceed with the case, and with dispatch. There are similar embarrassing cases occasioned by contradictory decisions from courts across the country.
Elections must never be a do-or-die affair. Politicians must learn to live with the democratic values of moderation, negotiation and non-violence. It is a game of limited victory. Those who win today may lose tomorrow and the losers of today may emerge tomorrow’s victor. Also important is the fact that preserving democracy and promoting the peace and prosperity of the country are higher projects than the partisan ambitions of parties and individuals. In this connection, the insistence by former President Goodluck Jonathan that his ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian was instructive.
The courts, as custodians of the law, must be very mindful of the fate of democracy. They must never be susceptible to the temptations of partisanship either for pecuniary reasons or other forms of solidarity. They must be neutral and uphold justice and the rule of law. The same applies to the election management body and the security agencies. When any of these agencies become compromised, they threaten the foundations of democracy and the survival of the state.
Even though President Goodluck Jonathan exemplarily conceded defeat before the conclusion of the vote tally of the 2015 presidential election, the transition team of the then president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, complained about the uncooperative attitude of the team of the then outgoing President. This became an alibi for the slow take-off of the present government. Such uncooperative attitudes must not be allowed to continue. Nigerian politicians and public officials must take a cue from the American experience and behave appropriately in order to strengthen democratic institutions in the country.
