Andy Uba and the Appeal Court

On Friday, November 13 the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu finally put a seal on the pipe dream of Mr Emmanuel Nnamdi (Andy) Uba, who has been strutting himself around as a ‘governor in waiting'. Where ever Mr. Uba got this impression of himself is not important, because every man has a right to dream. This dream however was carried too far in a frivolous and vexatious suit to a realm that has no business with dreams, certainly not this kind. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. Mr. Uba was asking a lower court to throw out the verdict of a higher court.

What Mr. Uba wanted the Appeal Court to do was to overturn a judgment that had earlier been given by the Supreme Court, which in 2007 stripped him of the right to be called a governor because the purported election that brought him to power was illegal. The Supreme Court had ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, violated the constitution by conducting an election into an office that was not vacant.

Justice Nwani Ngwuta in delivering the judgment said the election was not conducted in accordance with the 1999 Constitution, which provides that an election must be held not earlier than 60 days before the expiration of the office of the incumbent and not later than 30 days before the expiration.

The court did not only affirm the judgment of the Supreme Court, it also dismissed Uba's application as devoid of moral content and legal backing. This is a characterisation that applies not only to the details of the case but to the protagonist, his lawyers and the other party, INEC, a body set up to conduct elections in this country. This matter should not be allowed to end here.

First, there should be a limit to which the abuse of the constitution should be tolerated. The authorities at the electoral commission had, by holding the so called election violated and abused the constitution which states clearly that a governor's tenure begins the day he is sworn in. It is therefore a flagrant abuse of this section that INEC allowed itself to conduct the purported election that threw up Mr. Uba as a governor, when the tenure of Mr Peter Obi had not ended, and that INEC did so knowing that Mr. Obi was in court pursuing his case. It is based on this that we strongly recommend that these officials and INEC should be sanctioned. This abuse must not be taken at face value Second, the lawyers to Mr Uba who knowing that the Appeal Court could not have ruled otherwise on a case which the Supreme Court, the last court in the land, had pronounced on should not be allowed to go scot free. The Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, should take action against these lawyers because they have allowed themselves to be used in a way that called into question their respect for the fundamental principles of the practice of their profession and the judiciary. It is clear, even to a ‘baby lawyer' that the Supreme Court has the final say in matters of law in the land.

So why did Mr. Uba's lawyers go to a lower court on a case that had been determined by a superior court? Did they forget, or were they sucked in by the monumental hubris of the power mongers who inhabit our political firmament for whom money appears to be the final arbiter of everything moral, constitutional, electoral and judicial?

There is a lesson in this for politicians too.

It shows that the judiciary cannot be influenced or pocketed and should not be trifled with. This independence of the judiciary should be upheld and fortified. . It is clearly the only hope for the survival of our democracy.