In line with the ongoing constitutional reform process, the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) has advised members of the House Committee on Constitution Review to amend the constitution so that winners declared during elections are not sworn into office until litigations are concluded.
PLAC’s Executive Director, Clement Nwankwo, who offered this advice on Wednesday night in Abuja during a media parley between the House Committee on Constitution Review and members of the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE), regretted that those sworn into office immediately after declaration leverage state resources to pursue litigation to the disadvantage of others.
His words: “There are several other issues that the committee is also looking at, including ensuring that in the conduct of national and state elections, persons who are initially elected do not get sworn in until litigation is concluded.
“What we do see is that persons are elected into offices, they get sworn in, and they use the resources of the states to pursue litigation to the disadvantage of the persons who are challenging their elections.
“It doesn’t mean that the persons challenging the elections have a good case, but it means that there is some sort of level playing field if everybody who is announced as the winner of the election is not sworn in until litigation is concluded.
“We did see with the presidential elections that were conducted in 2023 that you have the incumbent in office, even though he was announced as a winner by the court. At the end of the day, the fact of being in office always has its own consequences for free and fair adjudication of elections.
“So part of what the committee is looking at is to be able to adjust the timelines and timetable for election petitions to ensure that this is well addressed. We also have the fact that virtually every person who has contested does not have to go through two levels of litigation, except for governors, who now have to go through three levels.
“The governors whose petitions stopped at the Court of Appeal were able to mobilise legislative support, such that appeals now went to the Supreme Court for governorship positions.
“So this is one of the issues that the committee is discussing to see how every position in every election stops at two levels of litigation, and for the governorship positions.
“It’s not quite clear yet whether it stops at the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal, but the position of the committee is to ensure that this is limited to two levels of litigation and adjudication.”
Disclosing that the committee is currently examining important aspects of the law, Nwankwo highlighted local government reforms as one of the main areas the committee must focus on to promote the development of local governments.
One of them is local government reforms, particularly in light of the recent Supreme Court judgment where the Court decided that local governments should operate a separate account and that the accounts of local governments, into which funds from the Federation are to be deposited, must be kept separate. The Court also emphasised that the autonomy of local governments should be respected.
“That decision needs constitutional authorisation, and that is one of the issues that the constitution review committee is looking at to give constitutional backing to that Supreme Court decision.
“So the local government reforms are quite key. The issue of electoral reforms is also very key, and that ties into local government reforms as well. When we look at elections conducted by states in local governments, it’s a sham,” he said.
