“SUPREME Court is final not because it is infallible; but it is infallible because it is final.” This finality laid to rest the accusations and counter accusations on the results of the Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election and opened a wide gate for the triumphant side to trumpet their victorious chorus to the crescendo. However, beyond the affirmation lies the questions on good governance and development which have been decelerating the quest for ideal democracy in the country. On 26th October, 2023, a seven-man panel of justices at the Supreme Court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, in a unanimous judgment, upheld the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February presidential polls, ending months of legal challenges brought by his two main rivals, His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi. The legal battle started in March after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared as president, Tinubu who scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku, who got 6,984,520 votes, and Mr Obi, who came third with 6,101,533 votes at the election as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The duo argued that Tinubu’s victory was marred by irregularities therefore, it should be reversed.
The accusations of balloting-rigging and fraud have been a recurring issue at the end of every electoral cycles since the country returns to democratization in 1999 but the INEC declared winner at the presidential election have always have their ways at the supreme court. The most amazing one was the 2007 presidential election where President Musa Yar’Adua publicly acknowledged irregularities in the election that brought him to power and promised a reform. Yet, the supreme court still authenticated the process and affirmed him winner of the election. The same can be deduced from the emergence of Governor Hope Uzodinma, who came fourth in the Imo State governorship election in 2019 but later declared the winner of the election by the supreme court in 2020. This shows that the real victory lies in the ability to proffer solutions to issues affecting lives and standard of the people not really in the supreme court judgement. For months, Nigeria has been grappling with high inflation, insecurity, crude oil theft, dwindling foreign reserves and currency devaluation that have turned Nigeria to a laughing stocks at the global space. The multi-dimensional manifestation of these maladies seems to have defied solution with the daily degeneration.
It seems that every new administration always comes in with additional forms of pain for the people in the name of national sacrifice. For instance, before president Tinubu assumed office in May, a dollar to Naira was hovering around N620, but it has jumped to N1200. The same happened when president Buharis took over in 2015. This has negatively affected the purchasing strength of the people and aggravated the excruciating pains occasioned by the unabated inflation in the country. In the latest report released by the National Bureau Statistics (NBS), the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 26.72 percent in September as against the 22.41 percent recorded in May 2023. Concerned by the development led to the distribution of palliatives and promise to add 15 million people to the social investment scheme. Unfortunately, the palliatives seems not to have yielded the expected results with the swelling in the slope of those living below poverty lines. This is complicated by the expansion in the “colony of unemployment and underemployment” that continue to make the dwellers to live a life of scarcity amidst plenty. Coupled with this is the unprecedented increase in transportation faire caused by the sudden removal of fuel subsidy and poor road network. The resultant effect of these challenges is the increase in the proliferation of dangerous elements masquerading as bandits, Boko Haram, killer herdsmen among others. Fear of attack from these unscrupulous elements have made some people to abandoned their farm land/communities in search of menial job at the urban areas. This has negatively affected the volume of food production by creating food scarcity evidenced by the skyrocketed in the prices of agricultural produces at the market.
Also, the attacks have forced many children out of schools and increased the numbers of children roaming the street in the country. In 2022, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) put the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria at 20 million. This number is more than the population of some countries. Due to the rain of terror, the citadel of learning which ought to be an ambiance of peace and serenity has become a place of fear. This has turned the parents of most of the students schooling in schools beyond the region of their dwelling to great prayer warriors with consultation upon consultations to spiritual altars to seek for divine protection for their children. The security breakdown has made night traveling by road an inconceivable idea for those that have the money to take a flight. While those that don’t resort to prayers upon prayers to invoke spiritual protection.
At the beginning, it is used to be the fear of the common man but the recent increase in the rate of attacks on the convoys of the highly security fortified personalities seems to suggest that the rich also cry.
Few days ago, the Governor of Kogi State, Mr Yahya Bello was attacked by unknown gunmen at Abuja. While Senator Ifeanyi Ubah representing Anambra South senatorial district loss three police escorts to a similar attack at Njikoka local government area of the State in 2022.
Though, the challenges are inherited problems but the first approach of this administration to the issue of fuel subsidy and others show that there is need for the president’s team to look more at the consequences of their policies on the people rather than rushing to implement imported ideas in the quest to portray an hope that seems to exist more at the imaginary state of mind than the real world.
To achieve this, there is need to halt the dance on the supreme court judgement and focus on the business of governance by putting the right people at the right position so that the hope that is gradually dwindling can be reinvigorated and promises made during the campaign period kept.
- Oluwasanmi writes in from Atakunmosa, Osun State.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
REVEALED: Lifestyles of Ibadan ‘clerics’ caught with human head, body parts
When the video of three suspects –Ramoni Opeyemi a.k.a Alubarika; Taofeek Olalekan a.k.a K’abelohun and Tayo Akinrinola a.k.a Ifa– caught with…
‘Farewell great king’, Natasha mourns Ohinoyi of Ebiraland
Senatorial candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi Central, Chief Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, on…
Nigeria’s judiciary stinks, retiring Supreme court justice explodes
ON his last day as Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, declared on Friday in Abuja that the Nigerian judiciary is…
Big bum-bum: How Female celebrities are fuelling butt enhancement craze
The pursuit of the perfect physique for many Nigerian female celebrities and the surge in…
The rumble in Supreme Court’s jungle
Is there any connect between law and public opinion or judgments and public opinion? Before Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad’s (rtd) valedictory speech at…
Fury knocked down but beat Ngannou on split decision
WBC heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury beat former UFC fighter Francis Ngannou on a split decision in...
