Dr. Yinusa Tanko was the chief spokesman of the Peter Obi Campaign Organisation in the last general election. In this interview OLAOLU OLADIPO, he talked about the state of the nation’s judiciary as well as future plans of the Labour Party as one of the country’s leading opposition political parties. Excerpts:
A lot has been said with regard to the outcome of the petitions written by the various opposition political parties to the courts; the position of your party and its Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, has been in the public domain, do you think the current happenings in the judiciary have justified your stance?
It has even gone beyond that, can you imagine that as we speak to you now the certified true copy of the election petition tribunal judgement has not been issued to us by the Court of Appeal. That is to tell you the level of decay in the judicial system. It will also amaze you to know that the issues that we raised (at the tribunal) that are similar to what the PDP and Alhaji Atiku raised were glossed over by the tribunal. Our case was not raised at all in the Appeal Court judgement. That is to tell you the level of impunity that was visited upon us as a political party. They have been doing the same thing to our Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi and his deputy.
Till today, we have seen the huge volume of the Supreme Court judgement that touches on the issues that the Labour Party raised against the current President. That is why we said, we are not in any way satisfied with the ruling of the Supreme Court but we will abide by it and keep challenging the system until the right thing is done. We issued a statement recently with regard to the issue of not releasing or sabotaging the release of the CTC of the courts. We have also used the opportunity to tell our lawyers to ask if statements are being made as regard the cases that we took to court.
Could you be more specific regarding the issues that you canvassed at the tribunal that were not addressed?
We raised five issues. One; on the person of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we raised the issue of forfeiture of funds in the U.S. We raised the issue of his not scoring the mandatory 25 percent of votes in the FCT. We raised the issue of the processes of INEC and lastly, the issue of corruption that were levelled against the president as well. We also talked about the issue of util- ising IREV for collating the results of the election. We have a result from the IREV platform in about 8,880 result sheets which were blurred. These represent nothing less than 2 million votes which ought to have come to us. These issues were not considered at all.
Why do you think this is so, considering the fact that the Supreme Court is supposed to be an unbiased arbiter in any election dispute?
We believe that the Supreme Court has not been able to do what we call due diligence on the issues that we raised before it. They were in a hurry to give judgement. If you remember, we raised the issue of non-qualification of President Bola Tinubu as our first prayer and that was also one of the prayer points of Alhaji Atiku Abu- bakar. Alhaji Abubakar even went further to take the case up to the United States of America to the Chicago State University to unravel the mystery surrounding the identity of the personality that attended the school.
He eventually did that but because the court wanted to quickly adjudicate on it to prevent any kind of embarrassment and to beat the deadline prescribed, they (Supreme Court justices) went straight ahead to make their position known, which of course shows you that they were in a hurry to legalise illegality. I think those are some of the problems that they faced because they couldn’t wait to quickly dispense with the matter.
From the way you’ve spoken, are you accusing the judiciary of being overtly biased against you in favour of the ruling party?
I am a democrat who believes so much in the principle and doctrine of rule of law which is the bedrock of our democracy. I am not the only one who holds this view. A retired member of the court, Justice Datijo Mohammed, made this assertion too. Justice Mohammed made an open allegation against the apex court. He stated that the highest court in the land is not toeing the line of fairness, integrity and equity. He stated that the problem begins at the magistrate court, up to the Supreme Court. That is to tell you that a lot of people are not happy with the way in which the Supreme Court or any other court in the country is carrying on.
It may also interest you to know (dangerously too) that the caliber of judges that are being upgraded into the higher courts are being promoted by vicious politicians. This does not portend anything good for our country, especially in the next 10 or 20 years to come.
What’s your reaction to reports quoting the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Kayode Ariwoola, saying some elements outside that arm of government are bullying the judiciary, saying judges usually base their judgements on facts available to them and not on emotion?
Unfortunately, there is this saying that a dog does not know whether there is a party in the house or not especially if the dog sees s bone on the floor. If the judiciary has been up and doing, the people won’t be making this kind of allegation against it. As a matter of policy, we give the judiciary a pat in the back whenever we see it doing the right thing. That is how democracy is. You may take a case to court thinking you are right but when the case is adjudicated upon and you see the loophole openly, you will agree that you have been defeated in the court of law.
That’s the kind of democrats that we are. How do you explain to me in a court where a certified true copy of a document that was collected from INEC to pursue a case is rejected by a court which says that it is not tenable in court? These are some of the things that we saw. How do you fathom the case of somebody who never took part in a primary election being declared the candidate of a political party by the court? We have two clear situations of such in our hands right now. I agree that political parties have the right to choose whoever they want as their candidates for election but how do you react to the situation whereby someone won a primary election but the party eventually chooses another person as its candidate?
The person goes to court and the court now says that the right of the person who won the primary conducted does not mat- ter and affirms someone who never took part in the primaries as a candidate. You can now see the confusion that the law courts are creating across the country. There is no consistency in the judgements being churned out in courts. That leaves a lot of trust deficit in the system.
You said your group and your party have decided to abide by the judgements but from the way you’ve spoken, what is the next line of action for the Obidient Movement and the Labour Party?
The next line of action for us is to continue to challenge and engage the system by making it (the system) clean in the interest of the Nigerian people who yearn for a better society to live in. We have already stated clearly that we will come out full swing as a full opposition. We are going to do this until the right things are done by those in government. As we speak now, we cannot make recourse to the law courts anymore nor can we go to any polling unit now until when election is being called but we will continue to challenge the system and raise issues that are germane and fundamental to the lives and existence of our people.
Apart from the issue of the judiciary, which you spoke on, what other issue do you think will form the basis of your engagement with the system?
The Labour Party has made it clear that there is the need to review the 1999 Constitution (as amended). We need to go back and review the Electoral Act and we must also as a people raise some fundamental issues that have to do with our laws as they affect all of us as Nigerians. The Constitution must be revisited in such a way that it will leave no lacuna which has direct link with the Electoral Act.
The Electoral Act must be made in such a way that it is booby trap free. What I mean by that is a situation whereby the judiciary will no longer be used to institutionalise illegality. These are the issues we are going to champion. We are aware that the National Assembly has commenced the process of reviewing the Constitution and we are going to be part of it.
Nigerians have been complaining about the quality of opposition, which your party is currently playing at the National Assembly, many of your members were elected into the National Assembly in the last general elections, how do you react to insinuations that your members are not doing anything different from what the PDP and the APC are doing?
You are a witness to a recent development at the Senate when one of our senators, Senator Tony Nwoye, from Anambra State came out publicly during plenary to challenge the Senate President with regard to how he has railroaded them in appointing officers. That particular action was not done by the PDP or the APC nor the NNPP apart from the Labour Party. That’s to tell you that we are not confrontational but logical in picking up issues. That is the Labour Party for you. You will also agree with me that most of these people who won election into the National Assembly are greenhorns who are learning the ropes.
Our Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, his deputy and the National Chairman of the party met to fashion out how opposition would be. This meeting took place in two sessions and that is to tell you that we are proactive in our activities. So, the Labour Party is not shying away from any of its minuses but adding pluses to many of the values that the party holds very strongly.
