Jonathan Proposes Constitutional Court for Electoral Cases

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has urged the National Assembly to reform the country’s electoral litigation system by establishing a Constitutional Court to handle election-related disputes.

Jonathan made the call in Abuja during the 70th birthday celebration and book launch of Gbenga Daniel, the senator representing Ogun East.

According to the former president, creating a specialised court would help simplify and speed up the process of resolving election petitions. He noted that the current system—where governorship election cases move from the tribunal to the Court of Appeal and finally to the Supreme Court—has become lengthy and inefficient.

Jonathan recalled a past electoral case where a governorship candidate lost an election because voters used the wrong colour of ink while ticking their names on the register. He explained that the law at the time required the use of red ink, but many polling units only had black or green pens, leading to the cancellation of the votes.

He said although the National Assembly later amended the law to allow governorship cases to reach the Supreme Court, the long litigation process still remains a major challenge.

Jonathan suggested that Nigeria could adopt the system used in several Francophone African countries, where Constitutional Courts handle all election-related disputes in a single process.

He also called on the judiciary to remain firm and impartial in political cases, comparing judges to referees in football who must enforce the rules to ensure fairness.

While speaking at the event, Jonathan praised Senator Daniel as a constructive leader who brought his engineering background into politics and commended him for documenting his experiences in books.

The event was attended by several prominent figures, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was represented by the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, as well as former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other political leaders.