Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Zamfara State Coordinator of the Campaign Council of President Bola Tinubu during the 2023 general election, Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, has said the non-interference of the president in the judgment of the Supreme Court on governorship tussles, has saved the country’s democracy and rekindled hope in the judiciary.
The apex Court had on Friday affirmed the elections of eight governors: Abba Kabir Yusuf (Kano), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Dauda Lawal (Zamfara), Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi State), Alex Otti (Abia) and Bassey Otu (Cross River).
Marafa, in a statement in Abuja, said President Tinubu and the justices of the apex court lived up to the expectations of Nigerians, saying posterity would judge them well for allowing the will of the Nigerian voters to prevail.
He commended the president, who, according to the Governor of Kano State, stood his grounds not to interfere with judicial processes despite all pressures to do so by party loyalists.
“It is a welcome development. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has by this singular action of non-interference in the Supreme Court judgement saved the country’s democracy and forestalled the repeat of the 1983 scenario.
“You will recall that it was after the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) grabbed states that were hitherto of the opposition that the Second Republic collapsed,” he said.
Hailing the justices of the Supreme Court, Marafa said they lived up to the expectations of the Nigerian masses, and that they had made the country proud and written their names in gold.
Marafa, who represented Zamfara Central Senatorial District between 2011 and 2019, said the outcome of the apex court decision on the governorship elections has reinforced his belief in the ability and capacity of the judiciary to right any wrong in the political evolution.
He recalled a similar incident during the buildup to the 2019 general election in which he was the leading contender for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State.
According to him, “I protested the conduct of the kangaroo primaries and the imposition of candidates by the then Governor Abdulaziz Yari, the judiciary stood up to the occasion and delivered a landmark judgment that gave the whole state to the PDP opposition party.
“The judiciary must be allowed to be just and fair, no matter whose ox is gored. This is necessary if the political actors want democracy to endure in the country,” he said.
Marafa, however, urged the eight governors to be magnanimous, just and fair in governing their respective states.
