From Adams Agbo, Kaduna
A frontline rights and pro-democracy group, International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (Intersociety), has expressed concern that the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal delivered last week Wednesday has every reason for well meaning Nigerians to be worry for the survival of democracy in the country.
In a statement issued in Onitsha, Anambra State signed by the board chairman of the organisation, Emeka Umeagbalasi, Head of Democracy & Good Governance, Chinwe Umeche, Head of Civil Liberties & Rule of Law, Obianuju Joy Igboeli, as well as Head of Campaign & Publicity Department, Evangeline Chidinma Udegbunam, Intersociety canvassed for the raising of minimum academic qualification for candidates seeking to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic and governors in the future to be Masters Degree.
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The organization said anything less than that, will cheapen the democratic system in the country thereby attempt to making Nigeria to lose its proper place in the comity of nations.
According to the statement, “The eight-hour judgment of the judiciary delivered on Wednesday, 11th Sept 2019 by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (equivalent of Court of Appeal) is a clear evidence of Nigeria’s judicial un-seriousness and its implantation into the country’s democratic process.”
Intersociety challenged the Nigeria judiciary to rise to the occasion of being the last hope of the common man and not only a protector of those in power. The organization further said, “The judgement also amounts to racing back to the cave from being Africa’s cradle of knowledge for Nigeria’s seats of presidential and gubernatorial powers to be cheaply occupied by mediocre without physically proven or certified educational qualification.”
The pro-democracy organization further said that the judgement of Presidential Election Petition Tribunal last week was a gateway to writing the performance of the Nigeria judiciary in the wrong side of history.
According to the pro-democracy organization, “We are not surprised over the Wednesday’s marathon of judicial tautology, called “eight-hour judgment, as it took INEC over five days of national psychological trauma to announce the “Presidential results, it has again taken the country’s Presidential Poll Court (Court of Appeal) eight hours of rigmarole in its attempt to brainwash Nigerians and members of the international community by calling white pot a black one.”
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The organization also said, “At Intersociety, we expected not the contrary of the outcome of the presidential petition’s verdict even before it was delivered.”
The Intersociety group also said, “We call on the leadership of the National Assembly of Nigeria to amend the 1999 Constitution in Section 131 (d) for president, vice and 177 (d) for governor/deputy for purpose of scrapping requirement of ‘secondary school certificate or its equivalent’ for elective public offices in Nigeria. It therefore recommended mandatory Masters Degree in any academic field for position of the president/vice and governor/deputy.
The organization also suggests same academic qualification for position of the Senate President, deputy and speaker/deputy speaker of House of Representatives.
The pro-democracy organization added that first degree should be the mandatory qualification for state houses of assembly, as well as local government chairmen and councillors. “Until strict law is put in place for our electoral process, development will continue to elude the country,” Intersociety said.#
