Supreme Court overrules president, legislature

Nigeria’s Supreme Court overruled on Thursday provisions of an electoral act, passed by the legislature and assented to by President Olusegun Obasanjo, which extends the tenure of local government councils by one year. "No law enacted by the National Assembly can validly increase or otherwise alter the tenure of office of elected officers or as chairmen and councillors of local government councils in Nigeria," Justice Idris Kutigi said, presenting the judgment. It was the unanimous view of all the seven justices that sat on the case, among them Chief Justice Mohammed Uwais. The only way a change in tenure could be achieved was through an amendment to the constitution, the court ruled. Under Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, amendments to the document require a majority vote by from the federal legislature (the national assembly) and the country’s 36 state legislatures. The ruling averts a political crisis that has been looming since Obasanjo signed the electoral law in December 2001, despite opposition from all 36 states governors. They subsequently filed a suit at the Supreme Court asking for aspects of the law to be made void. While the ruling does not annul the entire electoral act, the Supreme Court’s ruling casts a cloud over the law, putting in jeopardy the legal instrument expected to be the basis for general elections scheduled for 2003. "The Electoral Act as a whole was a mix-up, a confusion, because the National Assembly seemed to have treated its legislative powers with respect to federal election as if they were co-extensive with its powers over local government election," the court declared. With the ruling, the governors are expected to organize hasty local government elections before the end of May, when the current tenure of elected local officials was originally due to end. New political parties were technically excluded from participating in the coming 2003 elections under the schedule approved in the electoral act, which put local elections last. These new parties now have the opportunity to participate in the legislative, gubernatorial and presidential polls, if they do well in local government elections. Analysts believe Obasanjo had assented to the discredited electoral law to keep out new political parties and smoothen his path to re-election. However, the preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission to handle the imminent local council elections is in doubt, with the national electoral register yet to be updated since the 1999 vote that ended more than 15 years of military rule.