 Noss of Nigerians across the country have raised eyebrows as to why it seems like the all-progressive Congress APC has been winning in states where governorship election outcomes were contested in court. After the governorship polls of March 18, several aggrieved candidates presented their cases to the election tribunals seeking favorable resolutions. While some have faced disappointment along this arduous path, others have emerged victorious in the pursuit of justice. But as the verdicts continue to pour in many Nigerians have accused the APC of compromising the judiciary to rule in the party's favor. Let's look at it, out of 28 states where governorship elections were held, the courts have issued verdicts on petitions involving 25 states. The APC has been victorious in 14, the PDP has secured 10 while the LPC has won. Along these states where the APC has been successful in court, only two were due to overturned victories of other parties that's in Kano and in Plur2 state. The other states were originally won by the APC and as such, they are famed victories. So tonight we have a public affairs analyst, Acheke Chude joining us to discuss more on today's development. Acheke, are you there? Good evening. Yes, I am. Good evening. Okay. Now, it's looking like the all-progressive Congress, APC is winning in states where governorship election outcomes were contested in court with all the rulings going their way. What's your take on this? I think it's a worrying development. First of all, it is a worrying development in the sense that electoral matters are now being decided by the courts and not by the polling units, not by the voters. So some other people in the judiciary have to sit down to decide where the voters actually cast their votes and that is absolutely not right and it has consequences actually because today the judiciary has been dragged into the mud, all as a result of the fact that politicians who have been known always for their corrupt ways and now people with their speculation that they are beginning that they have started to make serious erodes into the judiciary and to compromise the judiciary, but the judiciary is no longer what it used to be. The kind of reverence or respect that Nigeria has had for the judiciary has been eroded over time and so this aspect of judicial pronouncement I think is not a surprise to a lot of Nigerians. Nigerians may not exactly have any proof about corruption, you know, being involved in this announcement, judicial pronouncement, but they don't even need that kind of evidence because one thing that is very clear is that some of these rulings are so contradictory, so different, you know, from, I mean, matters sometimes of a similar situation and similar context where you have a judicial pronouncement, for instance, and naturally you would expect that the spirit of the stare desassi would prevail. That is that when a court of a particular jurisdiction of court, the jurisdiction, for instance, has made a pronouncement, other courts of similar jurisdiction have no choice to abide unless you take it to a higher court. But sometimes even courts of a dispute, even the pronouncement of the Supreme Court are set aside by even the lower court, you know, so a lot of people have become, and you know, perception is important, whether you can say you can, what the lawyer can accuse the dealer. Okay, you talked about perception. Let's look at the issue of perception that you just raised. Before now, we've had elections, I mean, going to the court. The court has actually determined election results over the years in the country. What is the difference of, what are the differences, you know, what happened before now and what we're seeing at the moment? And what do you also think about the APC, what people are saying, I mean, do you think the APC has compromised the judiciary to rule in its favor? That's my question. Yeah. You see, I think if there's any difference with what has happened in the past, it is the sense that there's more brisiness now in what is going on. You have much more, again, that also speaks volumes about the conduct of the elections and the management of the elections by INAG. These elections, regardless of what the ruling party says at the center, because they have benefited from the victory of the presidential election, for instance, but we all know what international observers at the kind of reports they gave that this is one of the... Do you think we still have an independent... They have an election and they don't meet the credibility threshold. Do you think we still have an independent judiciary? No, we do not. We have an electoral body. So what is going on is that under this APC government, especially under this specification, corruption has manifested much, much deeply in the way the courts are expressing themselves in the way INAG is organizing electoral. No, the INAG has never been independent in the first place. So what is happening? There was some shred of independence, especially under JAGA. But under the present leadership of the INAG, it has gotten worse. Elections are worse. They are more bracing. Of course, if you look at the last up-circular election in the U.S. state, Kogi state and the Biasa state, it was a general nationwide condemnation of the organization and the outcome of that election, which a lot of people described as no election. And then you now look at the quantum of court cases. It has increased exponentially. Because if we are getting it right in terms of, you know, good conduct of elections, we have less complaints at the courts. But now it has gone up exponentially. That means that more and more people are dissatisfied with the way their elections were. And then you now have the judges also being involved in all manners of controversy. I mean, and it's not just my statement. If you look at it, if you consider the statement of the former president of the MBA, the outgoing president of the MBA, Ulu Mida Patta, he said that the courts are under threats of abduction. He said that there was a deliberate attempt by the Nigerian political class to capture the judiciary. He added that they are achieving results. That is the political class in the attempt to capture the judiciary. And then Chidi Ode Kalo, simply after complaining about the corruption in the judiciary, simply described a lot of the judges at schools. And of course, we cannot forget again what the last, I mean, the outgoing Supreme Court Justice Datijo also said about the courts where he accused the judges of being in the company of some people who under normal circumstances, when the judiciary state had the right kind of image, and credibility would not be found in the midst of what the characters. And so these are people who should know their lawyers and especially when they have a Supreme Court Justice and then the former chairman of the MBA, of the MBA talking about the capture of the judiciary by the political class. So of course, corruption of the democratization process has gotten worse under the APC. And I think I agree with Tatiq Abu Bakar, who says that the APC is aiming for a one party state. And it doesn't matter how they come about achieving that, because already they are making plans for the 2007 elections. And the more states they bag in their kitty, the better for them in terms of the outcome of the elections because once you have executive power at the state, you can use the power of the executive to influence how elections go on in those states. Now, quick one before, because of time, we just need to wrap this up. Now, you talked about perception, the electoral rates, you know, losing trust in the judiciary. And we've seen judges, you know, before it used to be very reclusive lifestyle, they don't go out. But on social media these days, we see judges are partying with, you know, people and all that. Now, what do you think is a solution? How do we curb these matters, you know, going forward? I think there has to be a total overhaul of the system because as it is, I think we've gotten to a level where the corruption, for instance, within the judiciary, which is under discussion, it has gotten to an epidemic level. And so I'm not sure that there's any form of reform that can clean the audience table. So it has to be very wholesale. It has to be radical. It has to be revolutionary. But I think it is beyond that also. I think it's also, you know, us having to do some of our political system. Our political system is not working. And, you know, a system that brings the kind of politicians that are now holding this way in this country is not the kind of system that we can be envious of and that can deliver. You know, it is a system that promotes mediocrity, that promotes corruption. And so we must have a revolutionary... I think if people have talked about the kind of government we should have, is this presidential system working? Do we go for, you know, a parliamentary system? Nothing is absolutely wrong with this system. And it has been said that you cannot keep on doing the same thing, you know, on and on, and to hope for a different result that it is pure madness. So I am not sure that we have the capacity right now to just concentrate on judiciary and clean out the judiciary. Without cleaning out the political class, who are responsible for the corruption of the system. Unfortunately, it would appear that the APC is helping or corrupting the entire system for the purpose of remaining in power for a very long time to come. And that would be very dangerous for this country. Thank you so much. To the dear public affairs analysts, thank you for throwing in your thoughts as regards the judiciary.