Zamfara 2023: Matawalle and the antics of wishful thinkers

It’s political season once again, scheming, fabrication of lies, and propaganda would take the centre stage. Sadly, it has started! When I first read about a law suit against Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state by a self-styled and largely faceless group masquerading as an advocacy front, I did a quick check to understand the legal leg upon which such a deposition was made. I did so more because I wanted to understand why someone will bring such a case, that but for the fear of being held as contempt of court, would be dismissed as frivolous, especially with the busy nature of our courts.

As far as I am concerned, the bizarreness of this suit is further heightened by the media coverage it has received so far. It’s as if the originators of the case are more interested in trying Governor Matawalle in the pages of newspapers than in an actual court of law. On the basis of this alone, discerning minds should be able to readily deduce the intent of that case.

In fact, one does not even need to be a lawyer to understand that the entire gamut of the argument as gleaned from pages of newspaper is hanging more on wishful thinking than any concrete point of law. The one thing that anyone conversant with the Nigerian political scene will piece together from the suit is that the whole thing is wearing the familiar garb of a poorly planned hatchet job.

Equally, you don’t need a soothsayer to know that the case is a desperate response. Since the political atmosphere in Zamfara changed from the prediction of doom as advanced by enemies of the state following the hatchet burying talks from which APC has emerged stronger and more united than ever before, desperados have gone into an overdrive looking for any opportunity to make nuisance of themselves.

This case appears to be one of those last ditch efforts, or a short in the dark aimed at rocking the Zamfara APC boat that has weathered the storm. This fact can never be over-emphasised. And where people are desperate, they take hasty decisions that leave everyone bewildered and gasping. It remains to be seen what these people have set out to achieve, but I can say, without equivocation, that the macabre dance will end in premium tears.

It’s really offending to our sensibilities to imagine that the same credentials that Governor Matawalle presented to get him cleared in 2019, leading to his eventual emergence through a Supreme Court pronouncement will today be challenged. Everyone knows that if ever there was any chance, even APC would not have passed off the opportunity to overhaul Matawalle’s candidature in 2019, especially as he went on to be returned elected by the courts.

The court documents stripped bare and shared online by dailies are quite instructive. In the deposition, INEC is being asked to disqualify Governor Matawalle for perjury, the evidence of which they claim is in the different dates of birth which legal instruments have already ratified. It must be said that many Nigerians of the time Matawalle was born do not even know their real dates of birth. Quote me anywhere.

It’s no surprise then that Governor Bello Matawalle, having relied on different accounts from relatives, the last of which was his maternal uncle, had decided to settle for the current date of birth. My mother still does not have a date of birth and we have simply aggregated her year of birth using many oral accounts from as many of her uncles that cared to contribute to the saga as possible. Were my mother to be a politician, she would have had to change her date of birth after every uncle has staked a claim to knowing the real date.

Another point of litigation as submitted by these folks is that Matawalle forged the NECO certificate submitted to INEC. To the best of my understanding, to claim that forgery has taken place, the claimant must have in possession, an original to serve as the reference document. In simpler terms, you must have the original document to really claim that there exists or someone is in possession of a forged replica. In this case, there was nothing of the sort. I am sure Matawalle’s records with INEC have become public knowledge.

If this be the case, all these people ought to have done is simply pick the examination number from the result, buy a NECO result checker scratch card and verify its authenticity through the online gateway without breaking a single sweat. Perhaps these folks need a lesson in English lexis to truly understand what exactly they are accusing the governor of.

It’s on the strength of this, that I call on the people of Zamfara state and indeed all Nigerians to simply ignore those rabble-rousers. It’s not my place to demerit whatever claims they have brought before the courts, especially since the case has become subjudice. However, if it were left to me, a case like this one deserves to be summarily dismissed for abuse of court processes.

Make no mistake about it; I am a firm believer in our legal system. I have consistently held the belief that challenging some practices in court helps to clearly define the position of the law. However, it is also my opinion that some outrageous claims ought not to be dressed in the very honourable cassock of our legal system as doing so amounts to a desecration of the entire machinery of law.

Notwithstanding our kind of politics, our currently overstretched legal system must be allowed some space, if only to catch its breath. I believe there should be some safeguards in-place, a sort of gatekeeping to scrutinize the merits of some cases before they are registered and even assigned to a trial judge. Doing so, starves many of these storm chasers who seem to only institute many court cases mainly for the media attention it affords them. They appear to reach orgasm every time news daily gives oxygen to their frivolity with a mention.

One good thing that is sure to come out of this jamboree is that, the mask is sure to come off the faces of the leash-holders hiding in the shadows to urge some of these people on.

Jamilu writes from Gusau, Zamfara state