Following the November 5, ruling of Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which nullified the Senator David Mark leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and invalidated all decisions taken under his watch, including the primary elections that produced the party’s candidates for the 2027 elections, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, is behaving like the overfed little bird Nza in Igbo folklore that challenged his Chi (personal god) to a bout. Many Nigerians were aghast at the judge’s indiscretion and absolute lack of emotional intelligence when he voided not only the candidacy of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar but also every other ticket of the party simply because of the contrived grievance of one Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former official of the party. But Keyamo is over the moon with the consequential judgement, which import according to one of Gombe’s counsel, Luka Musa Haruna, a learned silk, is that, “As it stands today, the ADC has no candidate from the presidential level to the House of Assembly, governorship, Senate and all other elective positions for the 2027 election,” because apparently he sees in the defanging of the ADC even before the first ballot is cast the only pathway to the All Progressives Congress (APC) victory.
It didn’t bother Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) that the judgement was delivered only 72 days to the polls, a brazen and rascally act of judicial mischief by a judge whose actions were recently described by a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice A. B. Mohammed as rendering him “unfit for the bench.” To every discerning observer of the unfolding political drama, the fact that the judgement ousting ADC, the main opposition party, from the 2027 ballot, was delivered barely 24 hours after Atiku, commenced his nation-wide campaigns with a hugely successful rally in Sokoto State, is telling both in reality and optics. It was a panic move by a ruling party afraid of competition. But Keyamo would rather gaslight Nigerians with his jejune “Heavens will not fall if a certain Atiku Abubakar is not on the ballot in 2027” rhetoric. Sheer orotundity borne out of fear. As a lawyer, Keyamo knows that the dictum “heavens will not fall,” derived from the Latin legal maxim Fiat justitia ruat caelum – Let justice be done, though the heavens fall – in principle attests to the inviolability of justice when the law is applied fairly, no matter the cost. In other words, it speaks to a strict moral and legal commitment to judicial integrity. So, heavens are not expected to fall when the courts and those in power do not bend the rules. But heavens definitely will fall in a situation where a judge recently lampooned by brother-judges on a superior bench as someone whose actions constitute the “gravest form of judicial misconduct” and “highest form of judicial impertinence” whimsically gives a ruling that flushes the candidacy of Atiku and his running mate, Rotimi Amaechi, 28 governorship hopefuls and their running mates, 346 House of Representatives and 108 senatorial candidates and thousands of House of Assembly contestants down APC’s invidious toilet of political mischief.
Granted, because this is Nigeria, Lifu’s ruling could be upheld even by superior courts with the hope that nothing will happen. After all, what have we not seen? But if that is what gives Keyamo and his ilk the audacity to ride roughshod over fellow citizens, they are definitely not reading the tea leaves. Because if they are, they would have noticed that opposition political parties are no longer running away from state-sponsored thugs. They are increasingly confronting them. When the Sokoto State government denied the ADC venues for their campaigns, they took the rally to the streets and the entire state was shut down. Heavens fall when citizens have it up to their necks and insensitive leaders taunt them for their predicament as Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, did this week in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when he told poor Nigerians: “You are hungry because you are lazy. If you work hard, you will not be hungry.” Heavens fall when the inordinate ambition of men of power blights their sense of reasoning. Heavens fall when leaders become too arrogant to care about the consequences of their actions. Despite our legendary reputation for docility, the ramparts of ‘heaven’ as constructed by foolhardy and vainglorious politicians begin to crack when the people are pushed to the wall and urged to take a swim in a shark-infested lagoon if they grumble. And that is exactly what the APC is doing right now. That is why Keyamo’s “heavens will not fall” rhetoric is extremely dangerous. Anyone who supports the exclusion of Atiku and the entire ADC cast of candidates from the 2027 ballot at this late hour does not mean well for the country. This is neither about Atiku Abubakar nor ADC. It is about Nigeria and the inalienable right of citizens to choose their leaders without let or hindrance. It is about the peculiar circumstances of our fragile statehood.
It was for this same reason that the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led junta registered the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1998 even when it didn’t meet the registration criteria. In his autobiography, Call of Duty, the former Head of State wrote: “We had to apply some wisdom and flexibility. As projected, the AD eventually didn’t meet the criteria for the registration of political parties. We tinkered with the rules and said any party that came third would be registered. That was how AD scaled through. We did not want to create a system in which the South-West would feel marginalised. Whatever decision we took was for the peace and progress of the country. If tinkering with the rule we made ourselves would give respite to Nigerians, why not? The rules were made by humans and for humans. The idea was to give peace a chance and to ensure that there was equity and justice.” It is imprudent for anyone to think that there will be no consequences for government’s bad behaviour, no matter how egregious because Nigeria is a captured state where citizens have been abused to submission. History does not validate such hypothesis. If only our leaders learn from history, they would know that no matter the vicious inclination of a country’s security forces, they are never a match to a people with their back against the wall. Last year, President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar fled his Indian Ocean island nation following weeks of youth-led and Gen Z anti-government protests over severe power and water shortages, corruption, and economic hardships. In August 2024, Bangladesh’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, was forced to resign and flee the country after waves of protests toppled her government. In July 2022, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka after months of mass protests triggered by a crippling economic collapse, severe food and fuel shortages, and anger against the ruling family.
These are leaders who once believed like the current Nigerian leaders that they were invincible and the heavens will never fall because they had become the state writ large. In fact, in the case of Prime Minister Hasina, an estimated 1,400 people were killed by security forces who cracked down on the student-led protests that lasted for weeks. But she ultimately fled when she realised that rather than dampening their enthusiasm and weakening their resolve, the blood of their fallen compatriots emboldened the protesters and aggravated the protests. Those who relish lying to themselves could indulge their fantasy, but the truth staring us in the face is that Nigerian politicians are not planning for free, fair and credible elections in January. Weaponising the judiciary against the opposition as the APC is doing is an ill-wind. Using state governors to deny opposition parties level playing field is a recipe for chaos. Unleashing thugs on opposition leaders is a recipe for crisis. Using the judiciary to deny the opposition a foothold in the 2027 elections as Justice Lifu did with his ADC ruling is reckless. And boasting like Keyamo did that these shenanigans can endure without the heavens falling is crass ignorance and the height of foolhardiness. Time to pull back from the brink is now because the heavens can, indeed, fall when reason takes a flight.
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