By Ekene Aninze Esq.
I have said it before. You can be very smart, but you cannot be just too smart to be able to outsmart and fool everyone at the same time.
When the National Assembly amended the Electoral Act and inserted Section 77 of the Act, they did so with the intention that the Act would help them checkmate overly ambitious politicians from defecting to other political parties to chase their ambitions, even when injustice had been meted out to them by unnecessarily manipulating them out of the primary election of their political party.
Immediately the Act was passed, INEC, as usual, did not disappoint.
INEC quickly backed the National Assembly by issuing guidelines which stated that every political party must first give INEC a 21-day notice before conducting its primaries.
But it did not stop there.
Political parties were further mandated to submit a digital register of their members before they could conduct any primary election. Failure to do so within the stipulated time, which INEC fixed as 10th of May, or the omission of any party member from the submitted register, would automatically render the primary election of that party null and void.
At that point, INEC and the National Assembly believed they had perfected everything. They thought they had successfully cornered and estopped aggrieved politicians, especially those affected by the recent APC primary elections, from defecting to another political party.
But unknown to them, a political party known as “Youth Party” had quietly dragged INEC before Justice Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Their argument was simple but explosive.
They argued that although the Electoral Act gave INEC the power to receive notifications from political parties before conducting conventions and primary elections, that power, however, was only meant to enable INEC monitor the activities of political parties and nothing more.
The Youth Party further argued that upon a detailed consideration of Sections 29, 31, 32, 82, 84(1) and 98 of the Electoral Act, INEC had no power whatsoever to go outside the provisions of the law and begin issuing guidelines that dictate when politicians can defect into another political party, when parties can conduct their primaries, when they must submit the names of their members, or even when campaigns must stop.
According to them, those sections of the Electoral Act had already clearly stipulated the timelines for submission of candidates’ names and the period for political campaigns.
Therefore, INEC could not arrogate to itself powers beyond what the law expressly provided by issuing guidelines that practically controlled and strangled political parties.
They then asked Justice Umar to declare all the guidelines earlier issued by INEC null and void for being undemocratic and completely against the spirit and intention of the Electoral Act.
Justice Umar did not even waste time before aligning himself with the arguments of the Youth Party. In a judgment that has now sent shockwaves across the political space, he struck down all the guidelines issued by INEC and declared them null and void.
Now, the implications of that judgment are massive.
First, the transfer window across political parties has effectively reopened for politicians who may wish to dump their parties and move elsewhere.
Secondly, no political party is under any immediate pressure or compulsion to submit the names or particulars of its candidates to INEC until 120 days before the election.
Thirdly, political parties can still substitute the names of their candidates before 90 days to the election, and INEC will be legally bound to accept such substitutions.
However, there is one major issue Justice Umar did not address because it was not placed before the court.
He did not make any pronouncement on the fate of politicians who have already participated in the primary election of one political party and whether they can still participate in another party’s primary election.
The implication now is this: while politicians who were merely screened out or disqualified at the screening stage can still defect and participate in the primaries of another political party, those who have already contested in one party’s primary election cannot participate in another primary election again.
As it stands today, every wise politician who has been disqualified is expected to immediately take advantage of this judgment while INEC is yet to appeal it. And trust me, INEC will most certainly appeal.
The danger now is that the Court of Appeal may eventually take a different position entirely. And by the time that happens, it may already be too late for many politicians who failed to seize the moment.
