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With a number of appeals on tribunal decisions on contested governorship elections pending before it, the Nigerian Supreme Court has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start the long and arduous journey toward redeeming the image of the Nigerian judiciary.
The appeal of Chijioke Edeoga against Peter Mbah, the first of the contested governorship elections to make it to the apex court, is the first stepping stone in that journey. I am confident, as ever, in the position that a fair judicial analysis of the case of Edeoga will lead to one and only one conclusion, which is that Edeoga is the rightful winner of the election for governor of Enugu State. He is the man that met all requirements of the law to become the governor of that state.
The Supreme Court is supreme, not because it is perfect. The court is an institution manned by human beings. But it is supreme because of the unique role it plays in the country. It is the last hope and the final point for every legal quest for the truth. Its views as to what is the truth are final. Precisely because of that unique function, the court understands that it is the center of gravity that binds the society together.
In recent time, the court has come under unusual scrutiny and scatting criticisms for decisions it made. I dare to say that the court is not oblivious of the tensions generated by its past decisions. Hence, a usually cool and collected institution like the court will likely be extremely careful in assessing the consequences of the decisions it will be making in the near future. A cases like Edeoga v. Mbah is thus a golden opportunity for the court to reclaim its name and reputation as the last hope for justice.
In the Edeoga v. Mbah case, one issue rises above all else, and that has to do with the place of the NYSC in Nigeria. Millions of Nigerian citizens have gone through the NYSC program since 1973 when the wisdom of the leaders of Nigeria led to them to the conclusion that we needed a program of national orientation and service to bind together a fragile country that just emerged from war.
Since that point in in time, the NYSC has become a key national institution and a strong pillar of national unity. The NYSC program has shaped and defined the career options of millions of Nigerians. To underscore its importance, many government officials and politicians, including a Minister of Finance under President Buhari’s regime, lost their offices because they came short of the NYSC strict requirement. In this case, the heart and soul of the NYSC program are at stake.
The most significant and incurable error of both the tribunal and the court of appeal decisions in the Edeoga v. Mbah case is that those courts took the exceptional position that it was for Edeoga to prove that the NYSC certificate of Mbah was forged. NYSC certificates come only from the NYSC as the only authority to issue them. The courts ought to have taken judicial notice of that fact. The NYSC sent their representative to testify at the trial and he discredited the certificate paraded by Mbah.
The testimony of the NYSC representative was not contradicted by another witness from the NYSC or a witness that claims authority from the NYSC, nor was it impeached through cross-examination. The validity or otherwise of an NYSC certificate was never a thing to be left in the hands of the litigant. Hence, it was not for Edeoga to prove or disprove the validity of any NYSC certificate.
Merely pleading it and making it an issue for determination by the court were sufficient to trigger the court’s inherent powers to take judicial notice of the law and established facts. If there was to have been any problem surrounding the NYSC certificate of Mbah, it was not that of lack of proof. Facts of which the courts can take judicial notice need not be proven by evidence. Indeed, they are not considered disputed facts. They ought to have been taken as undisputed.
I know there are other points where the legal analysis favors Edeoga in his case against Mbah. However, the NYSC issue is the most dispositive and it is most straight forward and most easy to resolve in favor or Edeoga. Based on this, I am confident, as I have been from the begging, that the Supreme Court will reverse the judgment of the tribunal and court of appeal and declare Honourable Chijioke Edeoga the winner of the Enugu State governorship election of 2023. Mbah is aware of this probability. Hence, the continued tension within his closest circle.
Nobody feels that tension more than Mbah himself. He is realistic enough to understand that his occupation of that seat remains as tentative as ever. Whatever factors enabled him to survive this legal contest so far may fail him now that we are before the court that is the least susceptible to Mbah-type influence. Unfortunately, some of Mbah’s foot soldiers seem oblivious to this constant probability.
By Emeka Ugwuonye
