Judges shouldn’t be allowed to overturn election victory – Obasanjo
The outspoken former president, Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed his view over the ceaseless removal of governors by the court. No fewer than five governors are battling to save their job in the court at this moment.
Olusegun Obasanjo argued that a panel of three judges shouldn’t be deciding for the people. He explained that millions of Nigerians voted and that it’s wrong for the court to overturn their decision by declaring another person as the duly elected political leaders.
Mr. Abdullahi Sule (Nassarawa), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Abba Yusuf (Kano), Dauda Lawal (Zamfara), Bello Muhammed (Bauchi) are struggling to keep their mandates.
The ex president expressed himself, “I believe whatever form of democracy we have or whatever system of government we have, three or four men in the judiciary should not be able to overturn the decisions of millions that have voted. Now, we have to find a way to handle that.
“I don’t know what the way will be but, for me, I think it’s totally unacceptable that millions (of votes), maybe 10million on one side, maybe 9million on the other side. Then, you have five people sitting down, three of them agree, two disagree.
“And you come up and make cathedral pronouncements that cannot be changed. I believe that should not be accepted.
“How do we do it? I don’t know. But whatever form of democracy we have, we should look at how to handle this. If you say ‘go again for election,’ then, what happened to the previous election? I don’t know.
“So, I personally feel strongly about. It does not matter what you say about the judiciary, but in fact only five people or seven will sit down. If they are five, three may agree, two may not agree, and the decision of three will be final. All that you have done comes to the decision of three or decision of four.”
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