Nigerian Justices Have Been Selling Election Judgments To Incumbent Presidents Since 1979
Chief Awolowo and Olusegun Obasanjo exchanged some testy epistles reproduced in Musikilu Mojeed’s The Letterman, in which Awolowo effectively alleged that the appointment of Fatayi-Williams as CJN in 1979 came with an implicit bargain concerning the determination of the election petition of that year. He also suggested that days before the Supreme Court announced the decision on 26 September 1979, Chief Justice Atanda Fatayi-Williams leaked the decision of the Court to General Obasanjo, who desired to be reassured that he could proceed with the inauguration date of 1 October 1979 as planned. Forty-four years later, the current incumbent travelled to India with the assurance of a man who knew that the imminent announcement of the PEPT judgement did not threaten his position.
