Both parties have indicated their intention to appeal various aspects of this decision. Egbo-Egbo, J's decision has far reaching implications and could be seen by the lay public as reactionary because it arguably stultifies the development of western democracy and common law practice in Nigeria. But such blames are misdirected as His Honour or any other court for that matter would appear to have little or no choice at all given the provisions of section 308 of the 1999 Constitution. The country largely remains an undemocratic dictatorship ruled and governed under obnoxious, offensive and abhorrent military decrees, chief amongst which is the 1999 Constitution. Unless and until the 1999 Constitution and all other obnoxious military decrees are repealed, replaced or amended to become genuine Acts of Parliament enacted in accordance with the principles of democracy, Nigerian will remain an undemocratic dictatorship.
Elections mean nothing in the face of such obnoxious laws.
The problem with the 1999 Constitution is not just that it is a unitary constitution fraudulently depicted to be federal in character, but rather it is questionable whether or not most of its important provisions were made in good faith. A case in point is the presidential and gubernatorial immunity from prosecution provisions in section 308 of the 1999 Constitutions. Unfortunately, the Judiciary's hands remain tied to the same operative obnoxious decrees even now as in the recent Abacha era. Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution also denies the Police Force and the Judiciary of the means to perform their constitutional duties in such cases where the Governor, the President or their deputies are involved in any alleged criminal activity. In every other common law democracy I know of, the constitutional provisions seek to give police forces and the courts more powers, so that they can be better placed to enforce the rule of law and checkmate crime in private and public life.