Nigerian lawyer and activist, Frank Tietie, has commended the Supreme Court for not meddling in the internal affairs of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the dispute between Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Hon. Udeh-Okoye over the position of National Secretary of the party, saying that the apex court had dodged a bullet.
He said, “The Supreme Court has made something very profound and it’s sending a message to politicians that it must stop bringing the court into unnecessary political questions that they are meant to resolve.”
Tietie spoke at the weekend while analysing the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court on the lingering dispute over the position of the national scribe of the PDP Friday.
The Supreme Court had nullified the trial court and Appeal Court decisions that removed Anyanwu from office for want of jurisdiction, saying it was an internal party affair, as it was incumbent on the party to decide who holds its offices.
Weighing in on the matter on Arise News, the activist and analyst said “The Supreme Court did not allow itself to be tempted to the point of deciding which person or the party of the contending parties is now the National Secretary of the PDP.
The Supreme Court made a profound pronouncement when it decided that these are political questions. Political questions are questions that the court would not want to enquire into, especially when in this case it decides that they are internal affairs.
“It is actually very painful and it is outrightly shameful, disgraceful that the PDP that used to solve all her internal problems as a sort of family affair such that it then became a buzzword in the days past is now bedevilled by its inability to resolve of its own crisis.
“Whereas its own constitution makes ample provisions for an appeal process from each organ of the party to the other that is immediately above it, the PDP, particularly its leaders, is running away from solving its problem.
“The PDP must wake up and smell the coffee and realise that it has a very serious responsibility to show Nigerians that it is a party that can offer some form of governance by first of all governing itself. In this case, it should go back and decide for itself who its National Secretary is and not turn it to the Supreme Court and give the Supreme Court a bad name.
Tietie said it was wisdom on the part of the apex court to have passed the buck back to the party, noting that the political class had formed the bad habit of drawing the courts into internal party matters but only to end up accusing the judiciary of corruption.
“The Supreme Court has actually dodged the bullet. In this case, the Supreme Court has simply reinstated a time-tested principle of law, which is the principle of political questions.
“In this case, this is an internal affair of a political party and it is an express purview of the politicians to resolve it themselves.
The PDP has a challenge now to show Nigerians that it is a meaningful party or else if this disgrace goes on making many governors who are actually very disgruntled by the decision of the Supreme Court defect from the PDP and then we might just be witnessing the disintegration of one of Africa’s best and biggest party. It was the hope of democracy and it’s a shame it is going down this way,” he said.
