Softmirror:
25% FCT IS THE SONG DIS ONES GO SING TILL AFTER MAY 29 BEFORE THE LOOK FOR ANOTHER SONG TO BE SINGING AGAIN.

NaijaCowFarm:
This is a response to the topic that made the front page with the title “Prof Osunbor: No Place In Constitution That Says You Must Score 25% In FCT” with the link below: https://www.nairaland.com/7653249/prof-osunbor-no-place-constitution.

I am therefore hoping that the Nairaland moderators would be magnanimous enough to push this rejoinder or correction to the front page as well.

Firstly, let me make this clear When a lie is repeated so many times, people tend to believe it as the truth. This we have seen in APC in the past and they have not changed.

The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (section 134 subsections 1 & 2) states as follows:
“Section 134
1. A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected, where, there being only two candidates for the election a. he has the majority of votes cast at the election; and b. he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
2. A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election a. he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and b. he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”

Now, let me educate the professor and some of his few fans that FCT is conferred a special status by the Nigeria constitution.
I will treat this topic with the following subheads. I could merge some of these into one subhead to reduce the length of the discourse

i. The President is the Governor of FCT while the National Assembly is the legislative assembly (Section 301) and the president governs the t by proxy (Section 302) and appoints the Chief Judge of the FCT (Section 256:1 &2)

ii. The FCT is deemed a mini or little Nigeria (Section 2: 2)

iii. The FCT is NOT a federating state (Section 3:1)

iv. FCT has one Senator, other federating states have three senators each (Section 48)

v. All Federating states have a Governor, a legislative assembly, and a judiciary, with the Chief Judge appointed by the governor

1. The President is the "Governor of FCT" while the National Assembly is the legislative assembly (Section 301) and he governs the FCT by proxy (Section 302) and appoints the Chief Judge of the FCT (Section 256:1 &2)

For anyone to be governor of a state, you MUST be elected by a majority of votes cast and score ¼ of at least 2/3 of the LGAs in the state. This is the provision of Section 179 of the Nigerian Constitution. Taken in the same context, the president CANNOT be elected without having 1/4 of FCT votes, Take note that by the provisions of Sections 256 (1&2), 301 and 302, state that the President is deemed to be governor of the FCT. He appoints a minister to govern on his behalf. So, just like a governor cannot be elected unless he fulfills the requirements of sections 178 and 179, the president MUST fulfill the requirement of ¼ of the votes in the FCT to be elected as its governor. This is the context with which Section 134 (2) was written and it is not ambiguous and does not need a professor to teach us what the constitution means by adding a conjunction[b] AND[/b]

The FCT as a mini-Nigeria and Not a Federating state (Sections2 &3). The Constitution states "Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of States and [b]a Federal Capital Territory". [/b]

The constitution envisaged a situation where a presidential candidate may win in his region tribe or zone but only pick some votes in other regions due to tribal and religious inclination, hence to be a president of Nigeria, you MUST have been voted for by ¼ of miniature Nigeria, the FCT. The fact here is that whereas some states are ethnically dominated, the FCT is assumed to provide equal representations of each of the Federating States of Nigeria, This confers to the voters of FCT a SPECIAL STATUS. Quite unlike the professor tried to "teach" us.

The FCT is NOT a federating state but rather deemed a State ONLY for the purposes of GOVERNANCE.
Hence Nigeria DOES NOT have 37 states as being wrongfully portrayed for selfish reasons

All the federating states are listed in Section 3:1, but the FCT is not listed there. So, to understand the provisions of Section 299, you need to read in context the section and the subsequent subsections. You cannot just pick and chose, but read to understand the intent of the section.
Unlike the FCT, which is the capital of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, each state has a capital. Section 3:3 states “The headquarters of the Governor of each State shall be known as the Capital City of that State as shown in the third column of the said Part I of the First Schedule opposite the State named in the first column thereof”. Here is the catch, to be elected as governor, you need to score 25% in 2/3 of the LGAs of the state. The constitution does not recognize the State Capital as it recognized the FCT for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This clearly confers on the FCT voter a SPECIAL STATUS

The misconception of Section 299 shows that some of our lawyers need to be re-educated. With all due respect, let us examine Section 299. It states as follows:
299. The provisions of this Constitution shall apply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as if it were one of the States of the Federation; and accordingly –
a. all the legislative powers, the executive powers and the judicial powers vested in the House of Assembly, the Governor of a State and in the courts of a State shall, respectively, vest in the National Assembly, the President of the Federation and in the courts which by virtue of the foregoing provisions are courts established for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
b. all the powers referred to in paragraph (a) of this section shall be exercised in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution; and
c. the provisions of this Constitution pertaining to the matters aforesaid shall be read with such modifications and adaptations as may be reasonably necessary to bring them into conformity with the provisions of this section.
Even a not too educated person would know that the above provision DOES NO[/b]T confer on FCT the status of a federating state. Hence the argument that Nigeria has 37 states is clearly [b]FALSE.

F[b]CT has one Senator, other federating states have three senators each (Section 48) and 2HOR members. [/b]
No need to belabor this topic, it simply shows that FCT has a SPECIAL STATUS because all other states have 3 senators.

So, with all due respect, someone needs to tell Professor Osunbor that he was wrong, because, if his student had put up this argument in an exam, he would probably have failed him/her.

Softmirror:
25% FCT IS THE SONG DIS ONES GO SING TILL AFTER MAY 29 BEFORE THE LOOK FOR ANOTHER SONG TO BE SINGING AGAIN.

PoliteActivist:


Point is, we should correct the faulty wording in the constitution NOW - or years hence another generation will be dealing with same issue!

StOla:


No faulty wording but faulty partisanship.

Everyone knows that Nigeria is made up of 36 States and FCT, that serve as the component units.

To win a presidential election, the winning candidate must have,

1. Majority votes among all the contestants.
2. 25% or more votes in 2/3 of 36 States and FCT (Nigeria), which is 25 component units which can be 25 States or 24 States and FCT.

Tinubu already met rule 1 and surpassed rule 2 by securing the 25% or more in 30 States.

StOla:


No faulty wording but faulty partisanship.

Everyone knows that Nigeria is made up of 36 States and FCT, that serve as the component units.

To win a presidential election, the winning candidate must have,

1. Majority votes among all the contestants.
2. 25% or more votes in 2/3 of 36 States and FCT (Nigeria), which is 25 component units which can be 25 States or 24 States and FCT.

Tinubu already met rule 1 and surpassed rule 2 by securing the 25% or more in 30 States.

Tntsi:
Some of these our professors need to go for lectures at the table of chimamanda adichie.
It is disgusting to see respected elders turn white to black because of the ambition of a druggie.

skj1377:
Chairman FCT has no special status. Besides if it is judged to have then expect indigens of Abuja to be hostile to non indigens till they pack out since they will now determine who rules Nigeria. It will never happen fct is not mini Nigeria. Your analysis is myopic like your presidential candidate that lost his presidential election though hoping to steal a mandate with funny analysis propaganda and lies.

PoliteActivist:


Point is, we should correct the faulty wording in the constitution NOW - or years hence another generation will be dealing with same issue!

limcar:
the Constitution is clear. We don't need mathematical calculation to solve the answer. 25% in Two third means twenty three states plus Abuja or twenty four states excluding Abuja. Simple as ABC

ObaIgwe1:


Supreme Court in their apology agree with Late Justice Kayode Eso, the only dissenting judge of the 1979 Supreme court case against against Sagari; that we can not have fraction of a state, so whatever excess on the whole calculation should be taken as complete state. What that means is that even if the calculation of 2/3 comes to say 24.05, the .05 must be taken as whole, which is 25 because we do not have fraction of a state.

StOla:

To a presidential election, the winning candidate must have,

1. Majority votes among all the contestants.
2. 25% or more votes in 2/3 of 36 States and FCT (Nigeria), which is 25 component units which can be 25 States or 24 States and FCT.

Tinubu already met rule 1 and surpassed rule 2 by securing the 25% or more in 30 States.

favor914:
Don’t mind that politeactivist, playing smart, but not been clever.

Upworkwriter007:
A professor of law should goan learn law from a novelist? Nice one.

PoliteActivist:








You are all arguing the same point but comming up with different numbers!!!
So, have a meeting amongst yourselves and decide which number you will jointly adopt!

Instead of being honest and admitting that the wording in the constitution needs to be changed to avoid this happening again in the future, you are insisting that "⅔ of 36 states and FTC" means something other than what it simply and clearly says.

To any HONEST person "⅔ of 36 states and FTC" is more likely to mean "⅔ of 36 states; and ⅔ in FTC" and NOT "⅔ of 37 states" OR "⅔ of 36, but FCT can substitute for a state".

As for the guy arguing common sense, this is not about common sense or what is reasonable. It is about what is ACTUALLY written in the constitution!

Softmirror:
25% FCT IS THE SONG DIS ONES GO SING TILL AFTER MAY 29 BEFORE THE LOOK FOR ANOTHER SONG TO BE SINGING AGAIN.

StOla:


Nigeria is composed of 36 States and FCT.

To describe Nigeria in terms of its geographical components, it would always be stated as 36 States and FCT.

A company is informing its customers that it is allover Nigeria, would say they have offices in 36 States and FCT.

You want to describe 2/3 of Nigeria is saying 2/3 of 36 States and FCT.

The requirement is to score not less than 25% in 2/3 of Nigeria.

That is, not less than 25% in 2/3 of 36 States and FCT.

StOla:


Nigeria is composed of 36 States and FCT.

To describe Nigeria in terms of its geographical components, it would always be stated as 36 States and FCT.

A company is informing its customers that it is allover Nigeria, would say they have offices in 36 States and FCT.

You want to describe 2/3 of Nigeria is saying 2/3 of 36 States and FCT.

The requirement is to score not less than 25% in 2/3 of Nigeria.

That is, not less than 25% in 2/3 of 36 States and FCT.

NOETHNICITY:
An unknown headless ignoramus trying to dispute the position of one of Nigeria’s most academically certified law professors in our nation’s history
Headless mob indeed

Ikea81:
I no understand, the people that drafted this constitution still dey alive? Make we go ask them.naa. lol