Date: 2023-04-26

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, has said that conflicting rulings in election petition cases pose a severe threat to the credibility of the judiciary and could even undermine Nigeria's democracy.

Prof. Egbewole, who stated this last Tuesday (April 18, 2023) while delivering a lecture to mark the retirement of Justice Ahmad Olarewaju Belgore and book launch in his honour at the Banquet Hall, Ilorin, also expressed great concern over the persistent controversy and conflicting decisions by courts of coordinate jurisdiction, especially in election matters. He advocated the introduction of ICT for the filing and recording of cases as well as delivery of judgments by the various courts in the country in order to check the trend.

In the lecture, titled “Judiciary and Electoral Jurisprudence in Nigeria: Uncertainties of Certainty", the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria explained that due to the nature of Nigerians and their attitude towards accepting defeat at any contested election, the judiciary has been placed in a very critical and precarious position to settle disputes arising from the outcome of elections. He added that due to the inevitability of disputes arising from pre and post-election processes, the judiciary as the third-party arbiter has been playing a very significant role in the settlement of election disputes.

He observed that despite the fact that the courts are contributing to the stability of the country's democracy, there are still some challenges facing the courts and to the dislike of the citizens, that is the lack of consistency or certainty in their judgments, too much reliance on technicalities as sacrifice for justice or substantial justice. He said this has been the basis for the criticisms leveled against the courts, alleging a lack of fairness in the judgment, by political analysts, academics, and even legal practitioners.