President Tinubu Inauguration in Nigeria: To Be or Not to Be?

Abstract

No election in the history of Nigeria has thrown up so much negative publicity as the 2023 election that produced Tinubu as the 17th Nigerian President. That he would emerge as the President willy-nilly was presaged by his boastful campaign and the complicity of ex-President Buhari who was installed in 2015 (without a court challenge from ex-President Jonathan) because of the kingmaker role played by Tinubu who had seen the 2023 election as a pay-back deal. Buhari completely abided by the deal he had with Tinubu despite the drug, certificate, nationality scandals and unconstitutional issues surrounding his candidature and that of his running mate: Kashim Shettima. The groundswell objection by Christians to the mandate for being a Muslim-Muslim ticket and the unprecedented support the presumed winner of the election, Peter Obi, received from the youths did not upturn Tinubu’s triumphalism. In view of these deep strictures which the Tinubu presidency encountered, his inauguration was equally greeted with a floodgate of litigations and popular objections. His swearing in before the outcome of the judicial challenge that has been raised by Akitu Abubarkar and Peter Obi gave birth to this paper which is doctrinal in method. It seeks to interrogate the political and legal perspectives that have informed the polarizing views of those who support, and those who oppose the swearing in of the President-elect vis-à-vis judicial decisions and the constitutional provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federation and the Electoral Act, 2022. It finds that those who believe that the swearing in should be carried out pending the outcome of the Tribunal’s and the Supreme Court’s decisions are more in tune with the democratic ethos and conventions in the country. Even the major contender, Peter Obi, seems to be in tandem with the pro-inauguration group having benefited from or experienced the same circumstances previously as a two-time Governor of Anambra State. In the light of the serious scrimmages that the issue has engendered throughout the country, it is recommended that an urgent amendment be made to the 1999 Constitution of the Federation and the Electoral Act, 2022 to provide for an early scheduling of all elections such that all issues concerning their legal challenges are timely settled before a winner is sworn into office to avoid the perennial crisis that greets situations where a candidate assumes office only to be booted out by the judiciary.