Nigeria’s two main opposition leaders have appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the tribunal ruling that upheld President Bola Tinubu’s election victory in February. The opposition leaders, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, are seeking to reverse the election results, which were widely accepted by the international community. This legal challenge is seen as a last-ditch effort to change the outcome.
Since returning to democracy in 1999, Nigeria has never seen a successful legal challenge to the outcome of a presidential election. The country has a long history of electoral irregularities, including ballot box snatching, allowing unregistered voters to cast ballots, and fabricated results.
Atiku and Obi’s petition is being reviewed by the Supreme Court, which has not yet announced a ruling date. On September 6, the presidential tribunal rejected their previous petitions to nullify the election results based on alleged irregularities.
In their argument before the court, lawyers for Atiku and Obi claimed that the tribunal made an error in determining that the electoral agency was not obligated to electronically transmit results from polling stations, despite promising to do so. They also contended that Tinubu did not achieve the required 25% of the vote in the federal capital Abuja, which should disqualify him from being declared the winner.
According to Nigeria’s electoral law, a presidential candidate must receive no less than a quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states and Abuja to be considered the winner. However, the interpretation of this provision differs between the opposition and Tinubu’s lawyers. The opposition argues that the successful candidate should obtain 25% of the vote in three-quarters of the states and Abuja individually, while Tinubu claims that the 25% requirement applies to the combined total of the states and Abuja.
As the Supreme Court holds the final authority in presidential election petitions, it has a maximum of 60 days from the date of the presidential tribunal ruling to deliver its judgment.
This report was contributed by Camillus Eboh and written by MacDonald Dzirutwe, with editing by Deborah Kyvrikosaios.
