July 03, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s political space was heated up few weeks ago when two political parties and their presidential candidates openly announced that the names they submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as vice presidential candidates did not belong to those that would contest the presidential election in February 2023, but placeholders who would be changed within the available window provided by INEC and the Electoral Act.
INEC had fixed June 17, 2022 as the deadline for submission of names of presidential candidates for the election. Many political parties held their presidential primaries close to the deadline for the submission of candidate names. To beat the June 17 deadline for submission of names of presidential and vice presidential candidates, some parties decided to submit the names of vice-presidential candidates who they described as ‘placeholders’.
Questions therefore arose as to whether the concept of a ‘placeholder ‘that some political parties and their presidential candidates have resorted to is backed up by the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the country.
Without a clearer picture on this, the Labour Party (LP) submitted the name of the Director-General of Peter Obi Campaigns Organisation, Dr. Doyin Okupe, as the interim vice presidential candidate of the party while the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, named Kabiru Masari as placeholder to stand in temporarily, pending when he would nominate a substantive vice presidential candidate.
While the controversy rages, the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said the party did not breach any law in nominating its vice presidential candidate.
Adamu said the party took the decision after making “careful” legal consultations. However, speaking on the concept of Place holder, INEC’s Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Barrister Festus Okoye, said the “placeholder is a unique Nigerian invention” for which there is no legal provision, adding that, the INEC could only replace a candidate if the person writes a “sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law.”
He said, “The constitution makes it very clear that you cannot run alone as a presidential candidate. You must nominate an associate to run with you for that position. As far as INEC is concerned, the presidential candidates have submitted their associates to run with them in the presidential election.
“As far as we are concerned, there is no form submitted by the presidential candidates where they said ‘we are submitting this person’s name as a place or space holder. The issue of space or placeholder is a unique Nigerian invention that has no place in our constitutional and legal framework.
“Political parties’ candidates have submitted names of associates to run with them, and that is the position of the law as at today and nothing has changed.
“For there to be a substitution of a candidate, the vice-presidential candidate must write to INEC, with a sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time-frame provided by the law. That’s the only way there can be substitution of candidates.”
Speaking with THEWILL, an Abuja based constitutional lawyer, Dr Kayode Ajulo, said ”A place holder in the political context under consideration is any person temporarily nominated to fill a position, with the understanding that he/she will not seek the office nominated for in their own right pending when a substantive nominee is presented as a substitute. It is primarily done to meet a deadline.
‘It is allowed in party politics and guides the administrative process.
‘However the rate and manner with which some political parties submitted names of some candidates in the name of “placeholder” without vetting and ensuring due diligence call for concern as in the long run, some indiscernible parties would have themselves to blame as ineligible placeholder/candidates cannot substitute or bring about eligible candidates.
“You can’t place something on nothing and expect it to stand. This Lord Denning’s dictum in the celebrated case of Benjamin Leonard MacFoy Vs United Africa Company Ltd at the Judicial Committee of Her Majesty’s Privy Council on Monday, the 27th day of November 1961 is very instructive here,” Ajulo said.
Speaking further, Ajulo described the statement by some people that a running mate has no right of withdrawal in Nigeria’s Extant Electoral law as erroneous.
He said, “This is purely erroneous, and a fallacy that cannot stand and not supported by any provisions of our law and practice.
“Apparently the unknown writer of the statement under review utterly and shamelessly turns the law on its head. Verily, the statement, it must be cautioned, is targeted towards a premeditated end.
“The law on the nomination and withdrawal of a nominee and candidate in an election is clear and without ambiguity.
“Once a running mate is nominated he/she becomes a candidate of a joint ticket and as a candidate in an election, the law permits such a candidate to withdraw his candidature within a specified time.
“For clarity, here’s what the extant law says; Section 31 of the Electoral Act 2022 states thus;
“A candidate may withdraw his candidature by notice in writing signed by the candidate to the political party that nominated him for such election and the political party shall covey such withdrawal to the Commission not later than 90 days to the election”
“The above provision also applies to the so-called placeholder.”
Also speaking with THEWILL, Comrade Charles Okogie, an Abuja-based public affairs commentator, said there was danger in what the APC, LP had done, stressing that the condition of the withdrawal of the so-called placeholders from the race required their conscience and being human beings, they may not be predictable.
He said,” Both APC and the LP are playing with fire. Assuming the two placeholders refuse to step down, what happens? Human beings are unpredictable. There is danger in what they have done. You know the law says that for such placeholders to withdraw from the race, the person must write a letter backed up by a “sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law.”
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, Mr Mike Igini, said the argument on the issue of place holders is a needless one.
“My first reaction is that we are just a people that engage in a sterile debate about place holding, rather than focus on the weightier issue that defines the polity,” he said.
Igini said he agreed with Barrister Festus Okoye when he made the point that all the parties had submitted names of their vice presidential candidates and had done so as of the last day, which was on June 17, 2022.
“Now having done so , if after you have submitted the names of your running mate to the commission, perhaps you have a question about the choice you have made and you prefer to label it placeholder or by whatever name. That is completely a different thing because what is clear is that all the parties have met the requirements of the constitution. By calling it a placeholder, Festus Okoye, Falana and all other lawyers have said if you look at the constitution and the Electoral Act, you will not find the word placeholder.
“But what is important is that they have done the right thing. We are not ignorant of what is happening around the world. The fact is that in the United States, there is a system of place holding. It exists in America where a state governor could appoint a placeholder, pending when the election is conducted and that is where a placeholder is nothing more than a person appointed to occupy an office temporarily with the understanding that such a person will not occupy that office as of right. I am not aware that when the parties uploaded the names of their running mates, they wrote a letter to our commission saying they were submitting names of placeholders, nobody did that,” Igini said.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
