ELECTION PETITIONS: You have duty to conduct yourself with dignity, Judiciary told

*Why opposition can no longer be taken for granted – Idayat Hassan

By KEMI KASUMU

As discussions lasted on a Channels Television’s special coverage for Democracy Day on Monday, themed: “Healing, Unity of the Country”, a professor of strategic management and human capital development, Okey Ikechukwu, took a look at the ongoing proceedings at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, saying it is the duty of the judiciary to conduct itself with dignity.

Recall that on the same programme also featured the Director General of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who said President Bola Tinubu had said right things so far but demanded he should now follow up his words with action.

At his own time on the special programme, Professor Ikechukwu argued that when people go into a contest, they accept the rules of the contest.

“So, if you go for an election, the expectation is that you will either win or lose. Now, part of what you find in the toolkit of the democratic enterprise is the judicial process,” he said.

The management expert noted that after elections, if a participant finds the results satisfactory, they move to the next level, the law, which he described as statutory, mandatory and constitutional.

“You also don’t tell the judiciary to finish it in 30 minutes. You look at the existing law; you have the law you are supposed to go through. It’s at the tribunal for 180 days and you have another 60 days at the Supreme Court, I think,” Ikechukwu said.

“So, you can’t jump forward and say, ‘I’m impatient, stop it.’ There are opinions, there are concerns, there are even hysterical reactions to what is going on in the judiciary regarding the elections. It is the duty of the judiciary to conduct itself with dignity.”

According to the professor, the judiciary is a statutory arm of government that has a duty to perform. He argued that aggrieved parties had a right to express opinions about what they expect from the judiciary.

“If the opinion of aggrieved parties outside of the law and judicial system is deemed to be pressure, I don’t understand what kind of pressure that is,” he stated.

“If, for instance, you’re in the hospital for surgery; it’s an appendicectomy that’s about to be carried out and some of your relations are outside and are complaining that ‘this doctor should do this,’ it doesn’t affect the diagnosis.”

Why opposition can no longer be taken for granted – Idayat Hassan

In her own submission, Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, Idayat Hassan, cautioned the political class especially those on the winning side to guard against mentality of impunity because, according to her, opposition today is no longer an emboldened minority that can be taken for granted any more but is now a majority in the House of Representatives.

But before she went deep into that conversation with regard to anchor’s question on what in her view can be described as quick things that need to be put in place now that begin to give people the impression of hope that can be built upon subsequently, Hassan, who first cleared the ground on certain aspect noting that information is power cautioning people to be careful the way they frame information, citing example of the fact that Jake Ekpele spoke to the issue of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not speaking, said:

“Moving to the future, it’s the way we communicate that actually matters.  A statement was issued but may be it would have been better with a press conference to actually tell Nigeria what happened on that night of the elections. That is the correction.

“But really, Nigeria needs patriots not just statesmen and we are all in this together because we are united as one, and there is an Idayat Hassan because she is a Nigerian. That is it. So, one, we all need to be extremely patriotic even to our country not just our country being patriotic to us.  But we actually need the inclusive government as something that is extremely important.

“The new government has already hit the ground running but Nigerians need to see that this will continue for one month, not just for two weeks thing, that it will run for the next four years and it will translate to the delivery of public goods and services.

“Trust is earned, it is not given and national unity is actually key; he, who has emerged, must be magnanimous in victory. At every point in time they cannot work on heart with conceit. This is no longer a winner takes all.

“And tomorrow will also be extremely indicative. What happens at the National Assembly tomorrow (today) will go a long way in actually assuaging the fears of Nigerians, giving them hope in terms of what is actually expected and what we even also expect as analysts because now, you cannot take the opposition for granted because they are now not an emboldened minority, they are a majority themselves in the House of Representatives.

“What is important for Nigerians will be the delivery of public goods and services that make their lives better, that reduce the inequality, which they currently face and the end to impunity, which erodes all forms of trust that we have in the country.

“They believe that, oh, there is no rule of law. Today you can slap somebody and get away with it. A new power has emerged and the system must do things that will have to adhere to the way it is done in one part of the country. Impunity must end and we must field Nigerians because we must have public goods and services being delivered to us as a right not as a tokenistic,” Idayat Hassan said.