NIGERIA SUPREME COURT SAYS, YAR'ADUA IS LEGITIMATE?

It was a lost chance to save democracy, so said Abubakar Atiku. Renowned human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi assessed it that Yar’Adua has lost moral right to govern Nigeria. Muhmmadu Buhari summarized it as a great disappointment and a miscarriage of justice. Stating that "by this judgment, the Nigeria Supreme court have forced a giant camel to pass through the eye of a needle. That the international community will be shocked and scandalised that an election, which they themselves held as deeply flawed, a fact conceded on several occasions by the President himself, had been upheld by the Nigerian judiciary. Continuing, Buhari said that this judgment is overtly perverse because it was agreed by all parties in chambers in the lower court that depositions would be accepted without oral testimony and now that the Supreme court turning around to conclude that there was no evidence is squalid in the extreme." Tam David-West apprised it that Nigeria now has a bifurcated presidency with the legal part of the presidency resting in Yar'Adua while the moral component lies with Buhari. Icheoku says that the Supreme court of Nigeria led by Justice Idri Legbo Kutigi, pictured here above, lacked the courage to right an apparent wrong.

A wrong which the entire world observed was perpetrated upon Nigerians in the 2007 election by Olusegun Obasanjo and Maurice Iwu led INEC. Believing that the Thailand Constitutional court would have provided these men at Nigeria's Supreme court with the moral compass and impetus needed to give the much anticipated and awaited befitting verdict, Icheoku has waited excitedly for today's verdict, annulling the 2007 charade of Olusegun Obasanjo, but surprise, surprise our weekend is now doused! The underlying muted reasoning of the Supreme court to keep the peace of the graveyard in Nigeria is not sufficient to assuage the disappointment felt by the whole world; a world which has been waiting in heightened anticipation for this verdict to right all the wrongs of the 2007 selections called "elections". Further the argument that the PDP would have won anyway, despite the wrongful conduct of the election, because the opposition is not well organised is not a tenable argument either; and assuming it is probable, Icheoku has a beef with their margin of winning and the spread in states. Olusegun Obasanjo ran a failed government and for his party to have returned to power with such a very high percentage of votes and states-spread, is an aberration; and this the Supreme court failed to address with their decision today. How could the PDP win in Adamamawa, home state of Atiku? It is a complete balderdash, a bull-crap!

As was wisely articulated by Atiku, the Supreme court's verdict was not a personal loss to him but a collective loss to all Nigerians who were prevented from freely choosing their leaders in that 2007 election. Wondering aloud, Atiku queried how the Supreme Court could uphold the election even when the beneficiary, Yar'Adua, himself, had admitted that the exercise was characterized by "irregularities and flaws." Yaradua immediately after his election, while attending the G-8 meeting in Germany, had told the entire world that his election was'nt free and fair; but now the Supreme Court says otherwise. Icheoku asks, can the Nigerian Supreme court be more catholic than the pope? In other words, why did the Supreme court of Nigeria decide to cry more than the bereaved? The disappointed were the millions of Nigerians who had looked forward to the Supreme Court as the final arbiter to salvage Nigeria's faltering democracy, which was shamelessly mutilated through the scandalous conduct of the 2007 elections by Maurice Iwu's INEC under the supervision of Olusegun Obasanjo. Nigeria's democracy is the real loser because of increased apprehension that desperate politicians would become more brazen, emboldened by the verdict to continue rigging future elections with increasing audacity.

In a split decision of four to three Justices of the Supreme Court, decided not to upset the apple-cart but choose to leave Umaru Yar'Adua as the "president" of Nigeria. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Idris Legbo Kutigi, Justices Iyorgyer Katsina-Alu, Niki Tobi and Dahiru Musdapher gave Yar'adua a lifeline while Justices George Adeshola Oguntade, Aloma Mariam Mukthar and Walter Samuel Onnoghen followed their conscience that there was admission even by Umaru Yar'Adua that there was substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2007. To Justice Tobi's argument that because Nigeria is a vast country made up of so many diversities in terms of tribes, cultures, sociology, anthropology and many political parties there must always be irregularities, Icheoku says that Nigeria cannot be more diverse than India, yet India does not experience as much irregularities as was witnessed in Nigeria 2007 elections. The argument that sensitized Icheoku so much was Oguntade's "an invalid ballot paper cannot yield a valid vote", strict interpretation of Section 45(1) of the elections Act, 2007 which substantially affected the result of the election. The implication of such purposeful oversight was that each of the candidates at the election scored zero as no valid votes were recorded for any of them.

In conclusion therefore, Icheoku affirms that the Nigeria Supreme court cannot be the only sighted entity in a blind world. They cannot be the only one in Jerusalem who has not heard that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead? The whole world cannot be wrong and the Nigerian Supreme court is the only one right! Something does not definitely smell right with the conclusion reached by this apex court, judging from what transpired under Olusegun Obasanjo and team Maurice Iwu in 2007 as witnessed by the whole world including the Honorable Justices. To conclusively adjudicate this matter, the Supreme court would have ordered a fresh election knowing fully well that Yaradua will still win it, because the opposition is weak and not well organized; and also judging from the outcome of such other ordered fresh elections in Cross River, Adamawa etc. Icheoku laments this missed opportunity to crown the Nigerian judiciary with the honored word COURAGEOUS! Icheoku notes that whereas Umaru Yar'Adua is saying that their doors are wide open to listen to any criticisms from any quarters yet he is arresting on-line bloggers, closing Channel Television and has also dragged Independent Newspapers to court? What a way to encourage dissenting voices, Umaru Yar'Adua's style? One only hopes and prays that this now Supreme court conferred-legitimacy will jolt the sleeping on duty, Mr. Slowman, the sloth back to life. Or hasn't he slept enough this past eighteen months in Aso Rock? Like Atiku, Icheoku accepts the verdict but like Buhari, the verdict is not agreeable to our common sense; hence we hereby formally declare our stand as the opposition e-media to Umaru Yar'Adua's presidency. From this date, December 12, 2008, in deference to the ruling of Supreme court, the Umaru Yar'Adua's presidency now becomes acceptable but not agreeable to Icheokudotcom!