Obasanjo Seeks Review of Constitutional Powers Vested In Judges to Sack Elected Officials

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for a review of the constitutional powers of the judiciary on the determination of electoral matters.

Obasanjo faulted the power given to the courts to cancel polls, and sacked candidates elected by the people.

Obasanjo spoke on the issue during the high level consultations on rethinking western liberal democracy at the Olusegun Obasanjo presidential library complex in Abeokuta.

He said it was unacceptable for three or four judges to sit in a court to determine who would rule Nigerians, who had gone to the polls to elect candidates of their choice.

The former president said he has no alternatives to the system which allow a few judges to truncate the peoples ’mandates, but said it requires a review.

Obasanjo also said he has reservations about the phrase Nigerian factor because it is generally used to explain away wrong things.

He said for failing to play by the Nigerian factor rule, his party lost in a local government election in 1998.

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Obasanjo said in the spirit of the Nigerian factor, party leaders had told him that there should be money allocated for the police and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission but he kicked against the idea on the grounds that policemen and INEC officials are government workers who earn their salaries.

Recalling the experience, Obasanjo said, “When things go wrong, you said the Nigerian factor.

The first thing I learnt in politics was this thing I called the Nigerian factor. In 1998, we had the first local government election.

We had parties, and here in Abeokuta, we met in my office and they came up and said, Look, this is money for INEC, money for police.

At a stage, I said, What nonsense! Are the police not being paid, and INEC too?

They said, That’s how we do it’. I said,You cannot do that. So, they didn’t do that. And of course, we lost all the local governments.

We lost all. And then they came to me and said, Baba, you see? If you had allowed us to do it the way we used to do it, we would have won. And I felt guilty.

During the next election, which was state Assembly, I just stayed in my house. I said, Well, do whatever you want to do, I will not be a part of it.

So, I didn’t even go. But the result was the same. One of the people who got money didn’t even distribute it to where he was supposed to distribute it.