Election matters impacting negatively on Nigerian judiciary – Ubani

A former chairperson of the Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL) of the Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani, has said the Nigerian Judiciary is overburdened with election matters.

Mr Ubani, a lawyer, spoke when he appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.

“SPIDEL just finished a conference in Lagos, and part of the discussion is this issue of judicial intervention in electoral matters, and the conclusion by all speakers invited is that we are really overburdening our judiciary with this issue of electoral matters.

“If you go to almost all the courts in the country today, all the criminal and civil cases are on permanent adjournments pending the time that the judges come back from election petition tribunals, where most of them have been assigned to go and do that responsibility,” he said.

“The criminal cases are not going; the civil cases are not going; even those on fundamental human rights ordinarily should receive priority and are not given that due attention because of cases currently going on at election petition tribunals. And they will not end now until probably December or January.”

Mr Ubani explained that the situation had become a recurring decimal because of a lack of fairness in the country’s electoral process.

“We have problems with the electoral process. At the polling units, we don’t have fairness at that level. Can’t we do something that will ensure fairness in the electoral process at the polling units? That’s where leadership is decided, not at the courts. We are overburdening the courts,” the lawyer stated.

‘What can be done’

Mr Ubani argued that it was improper that judges who are in the minority were making decisions at various courts for the entire Nigerians about the choice of their leaders because their choices at the polling units were not allowed to stand.

He expressed confidence that adopting technology completely in the conduct of elections would eliminate electoral malpractices from the polling units’ levels and ensure fairness in the process.

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“What we can do is to make sure that we really ensure a technology-driven electoral process that will address some of the infractions that we complain about that make people go to court. We must, as much as possible, enthrone fairness in our electoral process.

“Whatever we can do to determine the fairness of the process at the polling units, we must do it as a nation – either using the digital strategy or using technology in order to enthrone fairness so that there will be less human interference in our electoral process. The moment we do that, the less burdensomeness on our judicial system,” he added.