Dr. Joseph Nwobike, san was recently conferred with the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. He speaks on a number of national issues in this interview with Chief Judicial Reporter, Akeem Nafiu.

HOW would you react to the recommendation of Justice Mohammed Uwais panel on the setting up of independent electoral tribunals?
The recommendations of the Justice Uwais panel, one of it was in relation to deal with electoral offences and it was agreed by both the panel and the Federal Government that independent tribunals be set up to deal with electoral offences.  Although, the amendment to the electoral act has not come out, I think it is something that will bring more sanity to our electoral process for a dedicated tribunal to be set up to try electoral offences. We will see from the various elections that have been conducted in the past that in many cases, some of the allegations by the petitioners bordered on the issue of snatching of ballot boxes , preventing people from voting and  so on which were clear cut electoral offences. The urisdiction of the election petition tribunal is to determine who won elections, the criminal jurisdictions of these tribunals are obviously not taken into account in the entire proceedings and therefore elections may be voided on the ground of electoral offences but the perpetrators will be left to go home free. So, there is a need now to punish people for electoral offences in Nigeria. I will want to support the President to see that the idea of setting up the tribunals is pursued within the context of a legislative agenda.  In order words,  there must be a law setting it up as provided for in the report of the panel.

Do you support the idea of President Jonathan running in 2011?
I think if the President wanted to run as it is been rumoured in 2011, the first thing for him to do is to implement the recommendations of the Uwais panel because they were specifically intended to bring about sanity in the electoral process. I think one of the things the President could do that will attract sympathy from the masses is to implement those recommendations. The way the electoral process is today, it is difficult for an honest man to emerge as a winner even at the local government level. If he does all these, I think the President is also free to contest as a Nigerian.  However, whatever reforms are introduced by the government will surely fail if the politicians do not give it the attention it obviously and seriously deserves. So, the only thing I will recommend is that politicians must change their attitudes towards the quest for acquisition of political power and authority. People must understand that they are vying to lead the people.

Two party system, how realistic?
You see, political party is an institutional representation of the collection of persons, who share the same views and ideals with respect to political power and authority. So, political party is an evidence of the movement of ideas and so we should not determine political parties as if we are creating governmental parastatals. The number of political parties in any political system should not be decided by an executive or legislative fiat. To that extent, I share the sentiment, the concern and I support the views of the House of Representatives recently. Political parties should be decided by the number of groups that emerges reflecting the various philosophies and ideas that exist in the country at a particular given point in time. Today, in the United Kingdom, we have three major political parties. Some 10, 15 years ago, we have two political parties. So, it is an evident of movement of political ideas by people over a period of time. People should be free to form associations and government should allow such associations to metamorphose into political parties. There is no empirical evidence to show that it is the number of political parties that we have in the country that is creating political problems for us. The election in 1993 was inconclusive. So, we cannot say whether it would have been better than what we have now or not. No President emerged and governed Nigeria from that election. No political party govern Nigeria from that election.  The election of June 12, 1993, much as I support what happened then should not be used as a basis for you to now judge, for instance, the 1999 elections. I will say the 1999 elections were even freer because the elections produced a President. 1999 elections produced General Obasanjo as the President.1993 elections did not produced Moshood Abiola as President.

So, 1993 elections produced more problems to Nigeria than the 1999 elections. In terms of social issues, if SDP and NRC were not government parties, they would have gone to court to challenge the outcomes of the elections then. Look at what is happening now, on the election of Yar’adua alone, all the other political parties went to the court. That is the beauty of a political process. Gradually, the political parties will collapse and of course you know what is happening now where there are discussions on the formation of a mega party and things like that. The problem in the formation of political parties in Nigeria is that there is no ideological frame work. A political party does not need to be national.

It is only in this country that people talk of nationalising a political party. A political party can just win here in Lagos State and be sworn-in. The evidence is the Action Congress

(AC). PDP is not a political party because there is no ideological basis bonding the members together.

PDP is an opposition to itself. PDP is the biggest opposition to PDP. PDP candidates are campaigning for candidates of other political parties. An example is in Imo State.  PDP people campaigned for Ohakim to become governor against Ararume. Do you call that a feature of a political party?

What is the way out of the controversy over tenure of political office holders?
I think the constitution stated that the tenure of governors  starts from the day they were inaugurated. The question of the tenure of a governor is a question of law. So, for instance, the tenure of Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni, will start to run when he was last inaugurated. That was why the election of Governor Obi of Anambra State was not conducted when others were conducted. The governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Ameachi will not go next year May 29.

What about sorting out of all petitions before the swearing-in of elected public office holders?
The issue of sorting out all election petitions before swearing-in will create more problems for us. I think such provision should be put in the electoral acts, but with a caveat that in certain circumstances, the proceedings may be extended. The reason is that something may happen, an act of God or man. We have cases where a petitioner may want to call four hundred witnesses, are you going to say that the witnesses should not be called? Assuming you are calling two witnesses per day for a party. That means he will spend two hundred days on a party.

What is your opinion on the admissibility of computer print-out in court proceedings as ruled by the appeal court recently?
I must confess that the judgment is a welcome development. I think the judgment will help us in our law of evidence. But, I also hope that the losing party will proceed to the Supreme Court so that the court will make a final pronouncement on the issue. We are waiting on how we can be a beneficiary of this well considered judgment by the justices of the court of appeal.