Prof Tam David -West Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Frontline lawyer and Second Republic attorney-general of the federation, Chief† Richard Akinjide (SAN), has come under fire for claiming sole credit for the 12 two-third electoral mathematical magic that produced Alhaji Shehu Shagari as president in 1979.

Gadfly and former oil minister, Professor Tam David-West, said the former Justice minister lied that he was the author of the idea, which resolved the legal impasse that attended the aftermath of the 1979 presidential election, which Shagari contested with the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

He was reacting to an interview Akinjide granted a new weekly newspaper, published last weekend.
The 1979 poll had run into a hitch as the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) candidate, Alhaji Shagari who led other contenders failed to garner popular votes in at least two-third of the states of the federation as enshrined in the 1979 Constitution to give him an outright victory. Shagari only won popular votes in 11 states.

By the provision of the Constitution, Shagari was to have gone to electoral college, with the first runner-up in the election, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but he was declared winner, prompting Awolowo, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) candidate to challenge the electoral bodyís decision at the Supreme Court.
But the late sage lost as Shagariís election was upheld, despite a split decision by the Supreme Court justices, with Justice Kayode Esho writing a minority ruling in favour of Awolowo. He declared that two-third of 19 states was approximately 13.

But Akinjide, who led the legal team that defended Shagari had argued that the constitutional stipulation merely expected Shagari to win 25 per cent of the votes in the 13th state, an interpretation which the court adopted in its judgment.
Chief Akinjide had claimed in the newspaper interview that he had foreseen the circumstance while serving on the 50-man committee that drafted the 1979 Constitution and apparently how to take advantage of it.

But David-West, who was also on the panel faulted Akinjideís claim, saying the honour of who owned the idea belonged to another lawyer, Chief Niyi Akintola.
According to him, Chief Akintola was the person who sold the idea to Akinjide, but regretted that the former Attorney-general had been falsely basking in the limelight, while never publicly acknowledging the younger lawyerís role.

David-West noted that Chief Akinjide had several versions of how the 12 two-third magic was arrived at, saying in one interview the former Justice Minister granted the Ibadan-based Monitor Newspaper, he had claimed that he and his daughter racked their brains to fashion out the formula.

The Virology professor said he and Akintola had at series of public fora and writings tried to put the records straight, noting, however, that Akinjide had not for once controverted them. He wondered how the old lawyer had persisted in claiming credit for the feat.

Besides, David-West described as unpatriotic and unedifying of a lawyer and statesman of Akinjideís calibre to have foreseen a lacuna in the draft constitution, which could spell trouble for the country and not alerted his other colleagues on the panel to see a possible way of resolving it.
Said he: ìI personally canít get myself to believe Chief Akinjide is telling the truth for the following reasons: one, the time we concluded writing the Constitution, no political party had been formed. It was only after it had been promulgated into law, that the ban on politics was lifted. So, Akinjide couldnít have been such a prophet to anticipate that he would be a member of NPN.

ìTwo, Akinjide could not have anticipated the result of the 1979 elections so precisely. The third point, and this is not edifying of Akinjide is that, he along with Professor Ben Nwabueze was one of the 17-man legal draughtsmen panel that now put our conclusion into a legal document. It is a disservice to Nigeria and his honour that he saw that there would be problem in future and he kept the knowledge. Also, Akinjide is telling us heís wiser than every other person, even Nwabueze, a professor of Constitutional Law.