When on October 25, 2023, the Supreme Court fixed Thursday, October 26, to deliver final judgements in the two surviving petitions challenging the legality or otherwise of the declaration of President Bola Tinubu as winner of the last presidential election, many Nigerians received the news with mixed feelings as a result of the muffled belief that justice will not be done. It was circulated in many quarters that the ability of the Supreme Court to deliver justice was more of utopic feeling. This is because of the obvious, which points to the fact that many had lost faith in the judiciary, the Supreme Court most especially; no thanks to the myriad of controversial judgments it has delivered in recent times.
The petitions in question were those filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Peter Gregory Obi.
A 7-man panel of Justices of the Court led by Justice John Inyang Okoro had earlier taken final arguments from lawyers to the parties in the petitions. The Justices had thereafter reserved their judgments.
As foreseen, the seven-man justices dismissed all the appeals including the fresh evidence of tinubu’s alleged certificate forgery, thereby upholding the lower court’s September 6, 2023 judgment. They ruled that the opposition appeals over claims of fraud, electoral law violations, and Tinubu’s ineligibility to run for president lacked merit.
Thereafter, reactions trailed the judgment of the Supreme Court affirming the electoral victory of President Bola Tinubu. The Labour Party (LP) alleged that the legislative and judicial arms of government have been hijacked by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) while the PDP dismissed the judgment as disappointing and concerning.
At a press briefing hours after the apex court dismissed the appeals, LP’s Chairman, Julius Abure said the party is disappointed but has decided to charge on and remain optimistic for what the future holds for the nation.
According to Abure, what happened from the day of the 2023 presidential election to now showed that the nation was sliding towards dictatorship.
“We are indeed very shocked and surprised that even the apex court will toe the line of an earlier judgement in spite of all the flaws associated with the judgement delivered by the Presidential Election Appeal Tribunal.
“Having conclusively exercised our fundamental rights as gifted to us by the laws of the land, we have no other choice but to move on. We may be disappointed and dismayed by the outcome of the exercise but we have chosen to trudge on and to remain optimistic of what the future holds for the nation.
“We weep for our institutions that cannot rise to the occasion and courageously defend democracy and the voices of our people.
“However, there are great lessons to be learnt. What transpired in Nigeria since the February 25 presidential election is a clear testament that our institutions are not working and that we may be sliding towards dictatorship. It is very clear that the executive has hijacked both the judiciary and the legislature. This is so unfortunate for our democracy and it is even more for the people of Nigeria.
“All what our forbearers taught us has been destroyed within a short space of time because of the unbridled ambition of a few. The founding fathers fought with their lives to achieve independence for the country.
“People lost their lives for the struggle to keep our democracy and all these years people have been struggling to achieve electoral and constitutional reforms. Regrettably, all of these efforts and struggles have been destroyed today,” Abure said.
On its part, the PDP expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court judgment, saying that the apex court has failed Nigerians.
The party expressed its reservations over the judgment through a press statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, and made available to The Boss.
The party holds that the majority of Nigerians are “alarmed, disappointed and gravely concerned with the reasoning of the Supreme Court which the PDP believes is against the express provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act, 2022, the Guideline and Regulation issued by INEC under which the election was conducted”.
The party further “asserts that it is indeed a sad commentary for our democracy that the Supreme Court failed to uphold the provisions of the law. Instead, it trashed the expectation of majority of Nigerians who looked up to it as a Temple of Impartiality to deliver substantial justice in the matter having regards to the laws and facts of the case.
“Nigerians earnestly expected the Supreme Court to uphold and defend the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution in terms of qualification and minimum requirement for a winner to be declared in a Presidential election in Nigeria especially with regards to the required statutory 25% of votes in the FCT as well as issues of violation of electoral Rules and Guidelines, brazen manipulations and alterations of election results by the APC.
“Nigerians are still at a loss as to how the Supreme Court condoned the serious issues of forgery, falsehood and perjury on the altar of technicalities.
“The general gloom, melancholy and sense of despondency across the country upon the delivery of the judgment is an ominous sign of eerie situation which portend grave consequences because of the disappointment embedded in the judgment.
“This judgment by the Supreme Court has evidently shaken the confidence of Nigerians in the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court as the last hope of the common man.
“The PDP remains undeterred and charges Nigerians not to be discouraged or allow the judgment to detract from their collective quest for the entrenchment of a credible electoral system that can guarantee a government that truly derive its legitimacy from the people.”
More legal practitioners have also lent their voices to what many Nigerians have labeled a travesty of justice at the Supreme Court, using the judgment that affirmed Tinubu as Duly Elected as case study.
One of these legal icons is the just retired justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who bowed out on Friday having attained the statutory retirement age of 70, with not less than 47 years in the judiciary, 10 of which was as a Supreme Court justice.
His retirement day speech opened up a can of stinking worms in legal practice, especially at the apex court. He also exposed the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kayode Ariwoola and the Supreme Court as a whole as an institution of bias and ineptitude.
In his speech, the justice opened a new conversation on the enormous powers the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) wields, and how the present CJN has deliberately starved some regions, especially the South East of representation in the apex court among other revelations.
With no holds barred, His Lordship systematically dissected the politics of ethnicity in the apex court, saying that he is leaving the Supreme Court worse than he met it.
Dattijo, among many other accusations alleged as follows:
“As presently structured the CJN is Chairman of the NJC which oversees both the appointment and discipline of judges, he is equally Chair of the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) which recommends those selected for appointment to the NJC, the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) which appoints Senior Advocates of Nigeria. In my considered opinion the oversight functions of these bodies should not rest on an individual alone. A person with absolute power, it is said, corrupts easily and absolutely.
“As Chair of NJC, FJSC, NJI, and LPPC, appointments as council, board and committee members are at his pleasure. He neither confers with fellow justices nor seeks their counsel or input on any matter related to these bodies. He has both the final and the only say. The CJN has the power to appoint 80 percent of members of the council and 60 percent of members of FJSC. The same applies to NJC and LPPC. The power of being appointed a judge of any court rests squarely on him. Such enormous powers can be abused. Such enormous powers are effortlessly abused. This needs to change. Continued denial of the existence of this threatening anomaly weakens effective judicial oversight in the country.
“By the provision of Paragraph 20 of Part One of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, the NJC shall comprise the following Members: the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who shall be the Chairman; the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court who shall be the Deputy Chairman. Regrettably, the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court like Deputy Governors of States, shorn of any official function except at the pleasure of the Governor, is neither consulted on anything nor does he have any official function. His job as No. 2 is purely as the CJN pleases. It is incumbent that the system provides for more inclusion and consultation among stakeholders.
“The conversation about the diminishing number of justices of Nigeria’s Supreme Court has become a refrain. As I bow out today, the number is further reduced to 10 against the Constitutional requirement of 21 justices. That this avoidable depletion has affected the court and will further affect the court and Nigerians is stating the obvious.
“We are in an election season where the Election Tribunals and appellate courts are inundated with all manner of petitions and appeals. The Supreme Court is the final court in the Presidential, Governorship, and National Assembly election appeals. Yet, there are only 10 justices left to determine these matters. Constitutionally, each of these appeals requires a panel of seven justices to sit on them. When a panel of seven justices is constituted to sit on a particular appeal, only three justices are left out. Even when regular appeals are being heard in the Supreme Court, a panel of five justices is required to sit.
“We must not forget that the Supreme Court, being the highest court in the land receives all manner of appeals from the court below. Presently, there is neither limit nor distinction to the manner of appeals that come to the apex court. Again, beside election matters which are seasonal, the Supreme Court’s docket is overflowing with civil and criminal appeals, some of which took many years to arrive. Most of these are still pending. Several have not even been assigned hearing dates. The court also exercises original jurisdiction.
“As the justices who hear these matters are grossly overstretched, unable to meet the demands of their onerous assignment, the appellants who came to us seeking justice are left in limbo; waiting endlessly for justice to be served. These as I said before, are avoidable.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), during the week, released a fresh elections timetable, with major amendments to accommodate the just passed and signed Electoral Act 2026 by the National Assembly and President Bola Tinubu respectively.
Following the repeal of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the enactment of the Electoral Act, 2026, which introduced adjustments to statutory timelines governing pre-election and electoral activities, the Commission has reviewed and realigned the Schedule to ensure full compliance with the new legal framework.
Accordingly, the Commission has resolved as follows:
Presidential and National Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 16th January 2027 as against the earlier stated February 20, 2027
Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 6th February 2027 as against the former date of March 6, 2027
Also in accordance with the approved Schedule of Activities, the electoral bidy noted in the revised timetable that:
Conduct of Party Primaries, including resolution of disputes arising from primaries, will commence on 23rd April 2026 and end on 30th May 2026.
Presidential and National Assembly campaigns will commence on 19th August 2026.
Governorship and State Houses of Assembly campaigns will commence on 9th September 2026.
As provided by law, campaigns shall end 24 hours before Election Day. Political parties are strongly advised to adhere strictly to these timelines. The Commission will enforce compliance with the law.
But in a swift reaction, the opposition coalition, African Democratic Congress (ADC), rejected the revised 2026–2027 general election timetable, describing it as a politically biased schedule designed to favour the re-election agenda of President Bola Tinubu, and calling on all Nigerians to speak up enmasse to reject the revised timetable.
The ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Friday argued that the new deadlines and compliance requirements under the Electoral Act 2026 create near-impossible hurdles for opposition parties seeking to field candidates.
On February 13, INEC initially scheduled the 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections for February 20, 2027, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections were fixed for March 6, 2027.
The timetable, however, faced objections from some Muslim stakeholders who noted that the dates coincided with the 2027 Ramadan period.
Following the concerns, the National Assembly amended Clause 28 of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, reducing the required election notice period from 360 to 300 days, allowing INEC to adjust the election dates.
Subsequently, INEC released a revised schedule on Thursday, signed by its Chairman, Joash Amupitan, moving the Presidential and National Assembly elections to January 16, 2027, and the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections to February 6, 2027.
Reacting, the ADC said the requirement that political parties submit a comprehensive digital membership register by April 2, 2026, effectively bars opposition parties from participating.
The party stated: “The African Democratic Congress rejects the updated 2026–2027 electoral timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission. What has been presented as a routine administrative schedule of the upcoming general elections is, in fact, a political instrument carefully structured to narrow democratic space and strengthen the incumbent administration ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“According to the timetable, party primaries are to be conducted between April 23 and May 30, 2026, just 55 to 92 days from today. However, more significant is that, pursuant to Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act 2026, political parties are required to submit their digital membership registers to INEC not later than April 2, 2026.
“That is only about 34 days away. Section 77(7) further provides that any party that fails to submit its membership register within the stipulated time shall not be eligible to field a candidate. These are not routine administrative rules but are deliberately constructed barriers designed to exclude the opposition from participating in the election.”
The party further noted that Section 77(2) of the Electoral Act 2026 requires the digital register of members to contain name, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, National Identification Number (NIN) and photograph in both hard and soft copies, while Section 77(6) prohibits the use of any pre-existing register that does not contain the specified information. It warned that failure to meet these requirements would lead to disqualification.
The ADC questioned the fairness of the digital membership requirement, noting that the ruling All Progressives Congress began its registration process in February 2025, long before the requirement became mandatory.
“It is not a product of foresight but insider advantage. They knew what was coming. They therefore had one full year to carry out an exercise that other political parties are expected to complete in one month, during which they must collect, process, collate and transmit large volumes of digital data to INEC under the threat of exclusion. This is practically impossible.
“Democratic competition is based on a level playing field that does not give any contestant an undue advantage. A system where one party exploits incumbency to gain a one-year head start on a requirement that other parties only became aware of when it was nearly too late is a rigged system.”
The ADC said it has joined other opposition parties in rejecting the Electoral Act 2026, adding that the INEC timetable is equally rejected as it appears designed to serve what it described as a self-succession agenda.
“Let it be clear that ADC will not take any action that appears to confer legitimacy on a fraudulent system. We are reviewing our options and will make our position known in the coming days,” the party said.
The party also called on civil society organisations, democratic stakeholders and Nigerians to scrutinise the timetable and demand fairness, stressing that democracy cannot survive when electoral rules are structured to produce predetermined outcomes.
The party has consistently accused the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) of scheming to silence the opposition as the 2027 General Elections draw closer, citing his manipulation of state governors and Assembly members from jumping ship, and settling with the ruling party.
Presently, the president’s party has a total of 31 out of 36 states governors, more than majority of the national and states Houses of Assembly.
A frontline publisher and chieftain of the ADC, Chief Dele Momodu, has warned that Tinubu is gradually transforming into full-blown dictatorship, stressing that his second term in office would turn state governors into ‘total slaves’.
Chairman, Ovation Media Group, and former presidential aspirant, Aare Dele Momodu, has expressed strong concern over what he described as growing political support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu among state governors across the country.
Speaking during an interview on News Central TV, Momodu said he was shocked by the level of backing the president is reportedly receiving, warning that Nigeria’s democracy could face serious risks if the current political trend continues.
The media entrepreneur cautioned that allowing Tinubu to secure a second term in 2027 could, in his view, lead to excessive concentration of power. He particularly criticized what he described as a growing wave of opposition figures aligning with the ruling All Progressives Congress> (APC).
Momodu referenced reports of opposition governors, including Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, allegedly moving closer to the ruling party, describing the development as politically troubling.
According to him, some governors are allegedly competing to demonstrate loyalty to the president ahead of future elections.
“The governors are fighting to ensure Tinubu wins a second term, fighting to be the biggest thug for him. If a man in his first term can capture the bodies and souls of Nigerians this way, imagine what he would do with a second term. It will be a full-blown dictatorship, and the governors will regret it as they become total slaves to him,” Momodu said.
He concluded by urging Nigerians to remain vigilant and actively protect democratic institutions, warning that unchecked consolidation of political power could threaten the nation’s democracy and future stability.
The Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has affirmed the validity of the 2025 Elective Convention of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), which produced Dr. Kabiru Turaki as the substantive National Chairman of the party.
Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Ladiran Akintola upheld the convention in its entirety, ruling that it was conducted in full compliance with the relevant constitutional and statutory provisions governing party elections in Nigeria.
The decision marked a significant legal victory for the party’s leadership and brought clarity to the dispute surrounding the convention’s legitimacy.
The ruling followed an amended originating summons filed by Misibau Adetunmbi (SAN) on behalf of the claimant, Folahan Malomo Adelabi, in Suit No. I/1336/2025.
In a comprehensive judgment, the court granted all 13 reliefs sought by the claimant, effectively endorsing the processes and outcomes of the Ibadan convention.
Justice Akintola held that the convention, organised by the recognised leadership of the party, satisfied all laid-down legal requirements as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), and the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.
The court found no breach of due process or statutory non-compliance in the conduct of the exercise.
In the same proceedings, the court dismissed the Motion on Notice seeking a stay of proceedings and suspension of the ruling, filed by Sunday Ibrahim (SAN) on behalf of Austin Nwachukwu and two others. The applications were described as lacking merit.
Earlier in the proceedings, the court had also rejected a bid by Ibrahim to have his clients joined in the suit.
Justice Akintola ruled at the time that the joinder application was unsubstantiated and consequently dismissed it.
