INEC Server And The Judiciary Tricks! By Tai Emeka Obasi

Take this home – the smartest tier of our democratic process is the Judiciary.

They write The Constitution, The Electoral Act, The Tribunal Rules…

And they interpret them…one comma in one tribunal could be interpreted differently in the next…yet the chorus remains, “as the court pleases.”

A census could have as many as over a million practising lawyers in Nigeria…out of which there could be as many as 2500 Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

These SANs decide the future of about 200 million people. The Electoral Act and Tribunal Rules are so intricately weaved that these men of the third tier of government decide who becomes the head of the first tier(the Presidency) as well as many that form part of the second tier(the Legislator).

That word, ‘technicalities’ is the wool these men of wig and gown cast over the eyes of a hapless nation while they twisted and turned the rules any how it pleased them.

I was at the tribunal in Awka where one of the issues in conflict was whether Zixton, the secondary school Senator Stella Oduah said she attended truly existed.

There I was, an old student of both primary and secondary schools of Zixton, listening to the drama and couldn’t utter a word! Technically, I’m barred. Any murmur from me and I get slapped with contempt of court.

Yet, all it needed was for me right there to enter the witness box, swear on oath that Senator Oduah was my senior in Zixton and that her two younger brothers were my direct classmates and that chapter of the case closes. If still in doubt, I could be given just 30 minutes to dash into my residence to bring my secondary school testimonial and statement of result. But how dare me?


At the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja the last time out, INEC swore by their mothers’ (if they had any) graves they didn’t have the server HE Atiku Abubakar was referring to in his petition.

Both Chief Wole Olanipekun and Chief Fagbeyi respectively representing President Muhammadu Buhari and APC stood solidly behind INEC in their bizarre claim.

Now, all the over 25 SANs in that court, including all the members of Tribunal panel knew INEC was lying but none would admit. Instead, the onus is on the corner of Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN and his team representing Atiku to navigate the technical booby traps and prove INEC had and still has a server.

Yet, no matter how convincing the petitioner’s counsels sound, it will still need the panel to either uphold or deny them. Whichever option they take, the chorus remains, “as the court pleases.”

The most frustrating aspect is that these men of the Judiciary will always have a ground for any judgment given. They are licensed to kill or save. Yet none of them ever gets punished for any judgment, however terrible.

So, the future of this country, as terrible as it appears presently, is in the hands of the people with the wig. If they decide to let Buhari continue, they conjure enough trade jargon to justify their act. And if they feel Atiku is it, they have enough reasons to support their conviction.



The question is – can this very Judiciary be trusted to save Nigeria? A difficult question for any optimist especially in the wake of complications in selecting members of any tribunal panel.

There are talks that bribery rule the waves while I heard it from a deep source that any judge that has no substance to be blackmailed with never gets a look in. Very worrying signs that I do pray are not true.

As the clock winds down, we observe closely to see how the Judiciary handles the most indicting petition since the history of this nation.

#HistoryBeckons