The Judiciary and the State of Anomie under Uzodinma  


Anyanwu O. Anyanwu 


It is a year now that the Nigerian Supreme Court catapulted Senator Hope Uzodinma to become Governor of Imo State. Where he now bestrides as a 'maradona' in the status that the Nigerian judiciary bequeathed to him. Governor Uzodinma's path to Douglas House vis-a-vis his ambition, where it not for the Nigerian factor, would have permanently been confined to the garbage heap of history. 


Senator Uzodinma's penchant for resorting to illiberal means and parachute politics aptly fit the tempo of the Nigerian state, as it is presently constituted. From the executive, legislature and the judiciary, the real politics of ideas, character, development, intellectualism, honesty, fear of God, sincerity of purpose are all buried; while the state now seem to celebrate with great aplomb, dishonesty, mediocrity, injustice and even obfuscation of state issues and laws. This is the template that squarely railroaded Uzodinma to Douglas House. 


To begin with, before the 2019 Governorship Election in Imo State, Governor Uzodinma's resumè was populated with several law cases and litigation, such that, it was clear to Imo people and Nigerians that he could not be entrusted with the apparatus of state or levers of power to oversee the running of government in Imo. The most cerebral of those litigations was the charge for allegedly siphoning a whopping $12.5 million meant for the dredging of Calabar Sea Port. Records have it that in 2018, he was arrested and grilled over the alleged disappearance of the funds without any job done. 


The litany of cases against Governor Uzodinma before 2019 was so much that, many are of the view that, the easiest path of escape was to adorn the immunity casock - which can only be guaranteed by being a Governor. Thus, his plots to ascend the position of Imo Governor, even without the  electoral mandate of Imo people became somehow a cavalier expedition. One which can be equated with the American Rapper, Curtis James Jackson a.k.a 50 Cent's mantra of "Get Rich or Die Trying."


Specifically, the plots and all the conspirators that sank Imo State's democracy to trouble waters will ever remain the eight wonders of the world. Besides annulling outcome of the primaries All Progressives  Congress (APC) as well as condemning it for violating the electoral process by awarding the governorship ticket to two separate candidates, the Supreme Court, sidestepped its own judgement and went ahead to declare Uzodinma as a Governor of Imo State. It is an absurdity that has now placed the Supreme Court and the Nigerian judiciary in a bad light before Nigerians and the International Community. This is a dent that no one nor the Supreme Court can erase from history. 


To make matters worse, going by the judgement of the Supreme Court on December 20th , 2019, APC had no candidate in that election because the court held that Uche Nwosu, was disqualified, having been duly nominated by the Action Alliance (AA) and the All Progressives Congress (APC)  simultaneously.  


Even if APC had a candudate in the person of Senator Uzodinma,  APC came a distant fourth in the the governorship election conducted in Imo in 2019. His declaration as Governor of Imo State by the Supreme Court is most bizarre and therefore a clear damnation of democracy and the will of the people. It's a chilling usurpation of powers by the Court where only the voters have such powers. In a democracy, The court and the judiciary do not and should never have the powers to decide who govern the people, except in cases where interpretation or justice is sought. In this cases, the determination must be in accordance to the laws and laid down rules of the land.


For the records, the duty of the court and judiciary is to dispense justice, but not to elevate injustice and empower desperate politicians. But in the case of Imo as it were, it clearly tells of the democratic disaster that the judiciary

Cry me a river!