Voters should determine outcomes of elections, not the courts, writes JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA
On Tuesday, five political parties returned from the dead. The African Democratic Congress, the Action Peoples Party, Action Alliance, the Accord Party and the Zenith Labour Party were restored to legal existence by a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja. This was via a unanimous decision. Six weeks earlier, a Federal High Court had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister all five, to reject any candidates they nominated, and to shut them out of the 2027 general elections. The appellate court did not merely disagree with that judgment. It called it a nullity, delivered without jurisdiction, on a suit filed by an entity that does not exist in law, by a judge who had been ordered in May to stay proceedings and pressed ahead anyway. The panel reached for language appellate courts rarely permit themselves. Judicial rascality. Judicial impertinence.
The celebrations followed the usual script. The restored parties hailed the rule of law. Politicians declared victory for democracy. The commentary moved on within a day. It should not. We should be bothered that the existence of a political party is something a courtroom can switch off on a Monday and switch back on six weeks later. This cannot be the democracy we desire for our country.
