There are many cases in court against the two major presidential candidates, what happens if one of them is disqualified?
Our plea is that the judiciary should be circumspect in handling some of these cases that have serious political undertones. Those of us who are legal practitioners must also put the national interest first and above personal interest. With the state of preparedness of any of the candidates, if any candidate is disqualified now, we are going to have serious problem of breakdown of law and order. A candidate must however satisfy the constitutional requirement to qualify. On the one hand, people say that the president is not qualified to run for this election on grounds that what he completed under Yar‘adua is not the unexpired term but a full term of office so to that extent he has satisfied his two terms of office and wants to serve a third term. Some of them are relying on cases that were decided by the Supreme Court which states that framers of the constitution never envisaged a situation where anybody will be in office for more than eight years under any circumstances. They also cite the case of the governor of Kaduna State who was a deputy governor but the governor died in a plane crash. If the court states that he is not qualified to contest he must step down.
On the issue of Buhari, Section 32 of the Electoral Act is very clear. It says that everybody who wants to contest an election must swear to an affidavit stating that he or she has satisfied all requirements to contest and part of those constitutional requirements is that you must state that you have been educated up to school cert level or its equivalent. The moment you state this INEC is obligated to publish this information in your constituency and in this case in the whole of Nigeria. The law says that any person who believes that the information submitted by any of the candidate is false can go to court seeking for a declaration that the candidate should be disqualified for giving false information. If the court is satisfied that the candidate lied under oath, the court can disqualify such a candidate.
In a constitutional democracy we must have fidelity to the constitution and satisfy constitutional requirement to contest. If through due process the courts come to a conclusion that either Jonathan or Buhari is not qualified to contest this election Nigerians must accept it in good faith as having fidelity to the constitution and the law.
Insecurity was given as the reason for the postponement of the February 2015 election, how credible is this reason?
In the Chatham House lecture delivered by the National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, and in the question and answer that followed, the only reason he gave for calling for the postponement of elections was the difficulty in the distribution of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC). He said that it would not be right and credible to proceed with an election where over 30,000,000 voters have not collected their PVCs. He was also asked question as to the insurgency in the Northeast but he did not give that as a reason for calling for the postponement of any election.
A day before the meeting of the council of states, the interparty consultation committee on election security met and they never gave any indication whatsoever that security was an issue in the election. The other issue is that the Commanding Officer of one of the brigades in Owerri said very clearly that the military was ready for the elections, so for me the issue of security given as reason for the postponement of the election was an afterthought.
If Nigeria is at war and I agree Nigeria is at war because as at today, the military is engaged in internal operations in about 32 states of the federation. So the military will not be involved in internal security operations in 32 states if Nigeria is not in state of war.
It is true that we have serious cases of insurgency in the Northeast but the government has never said that it is impossible to conduct election in local governments that are under one form of insurgency or another. So I agree that we have security challenges but those security challenges are not enough for us not to hold elections. So the issue of security as reason for us not to hold elections was an afterthought.
Now, the question is could the electoral management have gone ahead to hold the elections given the fact that the security chiefs said they cannot guarantee security during the election? It would have been irresponsible for them to go ahead with the elections when all the security chiefs say anybody who is going into this election is on their own. We don’t have capacity to protect the election materials, public building and others, so to me the election management was right to have postponed the election given the advice.
One army Captain Koli recently leaked a tape alleging that the Ekiti election was rigged, how do you react to this?
I was in Ekiti and I observed in Ekiti. I was part of the situation room that said that the result that came out of Ekiti substantially represents the voting pattern in that election. I was part of the situation room that called upon the incumbent governor to concede defeat in relation to that election and I stand by it and I also stand by the reports we got from all our observers. It is possible that there were attempts and efforts made to corrupt and rig that particular election but from reports of all our observers on the field all their reports represent the eventual result of INEC. It is possible that there may be issues here and there and that people had perfected plans to corrupt the electoral process but the result that was declared substantially represents the voting pattern of the people.
Do you foresee any possible constitutional crisis?
The military is engaged in internal security operations in 32 states of the federation, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in 2013 said that Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast of Nigeria has reached a threshold of war and to that extent Nigeria is at war. Foreign troops have entered Nigeria’s territory – Chad , Niger and Cameroun – to fight the BH insurgent. Section 64 (2) of the 1999 Constitution states that if Nigeria is at war in which the territory of Nigeria is physically attacked that the president can utilise the powers conferred on him as President and Commander-in-Chief and approach the National Assembly for an extension of the four year period by a period of six months in the first instance. So to that extent there is a possibility that if the BH insurgency escalates the president and the National Assembly may likely use that power in which case the March 28 presidential election may not hold.
The second issue is that the people who are now canvassing that we should return to TVC instead of PVC may escalate a certain form of crisis that may make it impossible for elections to hold and if elections are held it may result in civil unrest which may affect the timing of the elections and create an impasse. If you look at the constitution, any election that is conducted outside the 30 days period to the terminal life period of this particular regime is unconstitutional, null and void and illegal. If nothing happens the National Assembly may go and sit and give us a contraption of an interim government, which is not constitutional but there is a precedent to it. These are very serious challenges. But all these challenges are not enough to prevent us from having elections, the alternative is very grave, the economy is wobbling and people are relocating because there is fear in their hearts. Everybody is nervous and the international community has issued an advisory that people should not come to Nigeria at this particular period. What Nigerians demand is to get through with the elections.
The 1999 Constitution provides for up to three strands of presidential elections if no clear winner emerges, come March 28 what problems do you foresee?
The problem is that does the INEC have the capacity, logistic and so on to mobilise for three strands of elections within so short a period and if we are to have a third election, it would fall outside the period slated for the governorship elections. So to that extent, there may likely be a constitutional crisis if INEC bungles it. To response to the seven- day provided for in the constitution. And if it falls outside that period there would be a problem because the constitution says seven days. If you organise election on the eighth day, you have fallen foul of the constitution and whatever you do is null and void.
So it is a very serious constitutional problem and I believe we should begin to address it. Our hope and prayer is that a candidate should emerge on the 28th March 2015 as President of Nigeria and that INEC should make a return on that day. If INEC does not make a return and no candidate emerges on that day, I doubt whether we can as a people and nation re- mobilise within the period of seven days to conduct another election, it may be difficult and I do not think we have the capacity for that.
