Sunday Musings: That Osun/Adeleke/Oyetola Court Judgment - By Bolaji Aluko

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Anybody following the Osun tribunal proceedings in real time must have had a feeling that something was wrong somewhere, and that many polling units would eventually be cancelled. Adeleke being  from Ede, we were being regaled with admitted systemic problems in that Ede axis during and after the elections, and virtually all the 744 polling units with problems eventually cancelled for all candidates involved, not just Oyetola and Adeleke, were in that axis.


Leading up to the judgment, what was not clear was that:


1.  Enough cancelled votes  would lead to the  up-turning of  the present winner.  I suspected this to be so ahead of time.


2.  The  Judges would be split in their decision.  This may be the real howler, at the end of the day. But it gives  Adeleke hope that he may yet dance in final victory, since  the last fat person  - the Supreme Court - has not sung yet, since a split decision  at lower court  can split the other way on appeal.  


On the long run, this ruling could favor ANY party in the upcoming presidential and other elections, leading to a tightening of some clearly loose matters. This is because there are three sources of corruption:


1.  The field 

2.  INEC

3.  The Judges


Clearly, the judgment bears scrutiny - where the howler, or howlers are.

Inec's BVAS does not prevent numbers inflation on Forn EC8A in the field,  but a 100% confidence in it makes it possible for an electoral Officer to cancel results of over-voting - with the BVAS number as gold standard - on the spot.  But when we start taking about Synchronized BVAS or non-sychronized  - a later number -  I dont know about that one o!


At the end of the day, we must have one BVAS - no manipulation should be possible - and one EC8A per polling unit, manipulable or not, but with greatest difficulty of manipulation .  Any mismatch must be easily traceable to the culprit(s),  and must be such that the unanimity of the Judges should be solid.


In the final analysis, I am more concerned about  the split decision of the Judges than anything else.


Prof Bolaji Aluko is a Special Adviser to the Governor of Ekiti State.

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