Tinubu's acid test as election tribunal delivers verdict
Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu delivers his speech after taking oath of office during his inauguration at the Eagle Square in Abuja, Nigeria on May 29, 2023.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu flew out of Nigeria to attend the G-20 summit in New Delhi, India, ignoring the election petitions against him.
But the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is due to decide on Wednesday afternoon whether his victory in February was valid.
Cases, courts and elections
Should he be worried? Courts across Africa have often refused to get involved in politics, but sometimes they do send shockwaves, as in Kenya and Malawi when presidential elections were recently overturned.
In Nigeria, Tinubu may know that however the tribunal rules, there are still appeals that will provide some respite. The Supreme Court can still be asked to rule on the matter.
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is based at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
No elected president in Nigeria has been nullified by this tribunal since independence in 1960.
The victory
Tinubu faces petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
Nigeria's 2023 presidential election, held on 25 February 2023, was won by Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State. He ran on the All Progressives Congress ticket and received 8,794,726 votes.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu the winner after he secured the highest number of votes and 25 per cent of the votes in 30 of the 36 states.
His closest rival, Mr Abubakar of the PDP, polled 6,984,520 votes, while Mr Obi of the LP came third with 6,101,533 votes.
The dispute
Mr Abubakar's counsel, Chris Uche, argued that Mr Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election, questioning the winner's academic records from Chicago State University.
The former vice president also tendered election documents as evidence to support his claims of electoral fraud allegedly perpetrated by INEC and Mr Tinubu.
Abubakar asked the presidential election petition tribunal to either declare him the winner of the 25 February election or nullify the election and order a re-run.
The petitioner told the tribunal that Mr Tinubu "was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast and therefore the victory of the President-elect is unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional... null and void".
He argued that INEC had unlawfully and illegally violated the Electoral Act, which "mandatorily requires" Mr Tinubu "to obtain not less than one-fourth (25 percent) of the lawful votes cast in the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja".
He also asked the court to make an order "directing" INEC "to conduct a second election (run-off) between" him and Mr Tinubu.
On his part, Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, filed some documents praying the tribunal to disqualify Mr Tinubu, arguing that Mr Tinubu "was not qualified to contest the election at the time of the (presidential) election".
Mr Obi said Mr Tinubu had been "fined $460,000 for an offence involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking, imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in case no:93C 4483″ between the United States of America and Bola Tinubu".
His lawyer, Mr Livy Uzoukwu, argued that Mr Tinubu's running mate, Mr Kashim Shettima, was not qualified because he was nominated for two different constituencies - as a senatorial candidate for Borno Central and as a vice presidential candidate "for the whole of Nigeria" in the same election cycle.
He urged the tribunal to nullify Mr Tinubu's victory on the grounds that he failed to secure one-fourth of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The petitioners alleged that INEC failed to comply with the electoral laws, including the failure to transmit the election results electronically using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and the INEC Results Viewing Portal.
The defence
President Tinubu and his deputy, Kashim Shettima, and their party, the All Progressives Congress, argued that the $460,000 forfeiture order against the president by an American court was a civil matter that could not substitute for a criminal charge.
They said there was no conviction and sentence against Tinubu as required by law for it to be converted into a criminal charge.
Indeed, Tinubu questioned Obi's qualification, arguing that his name was not on the membership list of the party on whose ticket he contested, as submitted to INEC.
