Besides, the vice president noted that the court must realised that electoral cases and dispensation of justice are not meant for the candidates alone, adding that the electorate remain the corner stone of every electoral process.
Osinbajo made the call while declaring open on Tuesday the 53rd annual conference of Nigerian Law Teachers Association, held at Bayero university, Kano.
The vice president, who is also member of the association, while dissecting the inter-play between democracy, law and electoral process in Nigeria, insisted that central to democracy is the right of the voting population to elect a candidate, the right which he stressed must be protected by electoral justice.
The professor of law cautioned the court to constantly seek every interpretation of the law that leaves the people with choice of candidate they prefer rather than substituting their will to the detriment of the voters.
Making categorical reference to February 21 and March 16, 2019 elections in Zamfara State, Osinbajo expressed reservation on the declaration of the Supreme Court judgment that invalidated outcome of all All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates who had won the elections ‘resoundingly’ and declared candidates of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidates winners of the poll.
The vice president regretted that Supreme Court’s declaration, which premised its verdict on the ground of inappropriate primaries in the APC, had denied the electorates the right to vote their choice of candidates.
Osinbajo therefore challenged the law teachers to always prepare to defend the principle of justice and rule of law just as he remind them to extend their resourcefulness beyond the abstract teachings of the principle to reflect the reality of social justice.
“Central to democracy is the will of the voting public and the right to elect choice candidates must be protected by the judicial interpretation and this must be reflected to determine electoral case. It is worrisome that our court are going into act which are out of constitutional expectations, especially during electoral process.
“This is leaving an argument that presume whether or not the court is largely assuming larger duty in the selection than its was constitutional intended. In other words, our court are going beyond constitutional provision in the electoral cases.
” It is important to emphasise this because the idea of democracy is the principle that determines who and how the right leader emerge. Hence, the law and electoral process must bowed to the will of the people,” Osinbajo emphasised.
The event attracted professors of law and jurisprudence, scholars and senior advocate of Nigeria in the academia, teachers of law and practitioners from across the higher learning institutions in the country.
