Recently, on February 18, 2020, I read the page of my friend, Onikepo Braitwaite, titled “Examining the Constitutionality of Independent National Electoral Commission’s Deregistration of Political Parties,” in Thisday newspaper, wherein she raised a pertinent issue of why there are always so many election petitions in Nigeria after every election. The amazement is what I intend to address in this piece. For non-lawyers, election petitions are cases instituted in specially created court-like judicial bodies, often technically and constitutionally referred to as election tribunals, in instances of elections into offices other than presidential, to address the dissatisfaction of a party/candidate on the outcome of any election. 
Election petitions are filed by aggrieved or dissatisfied candidates and/or parties that lost at the election. At the last count, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), over 800 of such election petitions were already filed from the 2019 general election, the quantum of which, I believe, is second to none in any other country. It is, therefore, an issue that calls for concern, particularly among well-meaning Nigerians. I am, however, not too sure that INEC has interrogated the subject at any point in time and, if so, proffered any solution to the absurdity. Let me say straight away that the said number of election petitions suggests or implies an indictment on INEC in terms of the quality of elections conducted. This is, however, not conclusive as I have not analyzed the available data. Be that as it may, from my little research and experience of the political situation in Nigeria, I can confidently assert the following factors as being responsible for the proliferation of election petitions in Nigeria.
One, and very fundamental, is the lucrative nature of political office in Nigeria. It is in Nigeria that the amount earned by political office holders, particularly legislators, and the perks generally, are outrageously humongous. Apart from the basic entitlements, most public office holders are believed to derive other outstanding material benefits by virtue of those offices. Therefore, it is the craze, in recent times, to struggle for political offices either by way of election or appointment. While I am not willing to brandish comparative emoluments structure of different countries as to which is higher or lower, I am prepared to assert that, relative to our circumstances and the manner of extravagance exhibited by our public office holders, the earnings and perks of our public office holders, in recent times, are unrealistic. This is apart from the challenge it foists on the economy as the cost of governance has become an albatross on the recurrent expenditure of government. I have witnessed so many bank managers resigning to go into politics, simply to become public office holders. In fact, in one of the instances, when I enquired from a bank manager why he would want to leave a good and certain job for uncertainty, his reaction is simply: “Egbon (brother), I have been struggling in the last 10 years to complete a bungalow, while my friend that is a school certificate failure that I used to support financially, and now a federal legislator, just bought the third house within a year and half of resuming (assuming) office.”
That is a major drive into the warfare of politics in Nigeria. As a foreign observer recently captures it, the difference between politics in Nigeria and that in the United States of America is that, while people go into politics to make money in Nigeria, in America, people go into politics after making money. This, therefore, constitutes a major attraction for aspiration into public office, thereby, leading to the proliferation of election petitions in case of elective offices.
Another factor that triggers the number of petitions filed is the amount of money expended generally in the bid to secure public elective office. So much is spent in the nomination process, both on the party structure and the party members responsible for choosing the standard-bearer of a party. At the end of the day, the amount spent on obtaining expression of interest forms and party nomination forms is sufficient to make anyone desperate to recoup the investment. Political parties, in their wildest appreciation of need for sacrifice to attain political office and for the party to make non-refundable monies from the desperate aspirants, have commercialized these forms and they bat no eyelid when poor but capable members of the party with altruistic ambitions fail to cough out the costs of nomination. In the 2015 nomination process, the All Progressives Congress (APC) charged the following as expression of interest and nomination form fees at the national level of the party:
• For the presidency, Expression of Interest form was N5 million and the nomination form was N40 million;
• For governorship, two million, five hundred naira for Expression of Interest while party nomination form was N20 million;
• For Senate, Expression of Interest Form was N1 million while nomination form was N6 million;
• For House of Representatives, Expression of Interest Form was N350,000 while party nomination form was N3,500,000;
• House of Assembly Expression of Interest was N100,000 while the nomination form was N750,000.
To prove the worsening insensitivity of the political parties to the public outcry that trailed the amounts stated above, the 2019 charges in APC were devastatingly suffocating. Expression of Interest form for governorship aspirants in 2019 was sold for N25 million while other offices recorded humongously lamentable amounts. How do you expect someone who honestly earned his money to spend so much in an attempt to serve the people without expecting returns? This is apart from the various other levies of the local chapters and the so-called political leaders and hangers-on. At the end of the day, the aspirant would have exhausted his savings and, at times, gone borrowing. This is further compounded by the amount to be spent in the general election, including demands by some members of the electorate, details of which are definitely more staggering. Quality of candidates is another factor encouraging the filing of multiple petitions. Apart from the known fact of a vast number of them not being well educated, they are also people of questionable character. Most of the candidates are people without alternative contact address; they primarily do not have any other means of survival. When they, therefore, find themselves as candidates and lose elections, they are unable to stomach the defeat and, therefore, gamble to the tribunal for legal victory. In fact, the desperation pushes many of them who believe that everybody has a price, to attempt to bribe judges of the tribunals and, where they meet persons of inordinate gusto for wealth on the bench, they put the efforts into effect and secure victory by fraud.
The level of electoral misconduct perpetrated by political parties under the connivance of security officials also leads to the multiple petitions filed in tribunals. Carting away of ballot papers and boxes under the protective force of guns, alteration and manipulation of election results, stuffing of illicitly thumb-printed ballot papers into ballot boxes, wrong entries, etc, constitute the bane of our elections and, thereby, compelling the filing of election petitions to unravel the truth. Associated with this is the quality of INEC officials who, apart from not being proficient in education, are poorly trained to handle the electoral duties of an unbiased umpire. They eventually constitute electoral hazard. Even where they are competent, a huge number of cases of compromises is often detected in the electoral process, leading to nullification of election results in some instances. Several number of INEC officials are still in court for one electoral offence or another as at date and it still seems unending.
It is as a result of this that politicians feel compelled to file and prosecute election petitions to right obvious cases of electoral malfeasance by which the actual winner had been denied his deserved victory. Of important consideration is the effect of violence and thuggery in our elections.
To be continued next week.