A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oba Maduabuchi, has described the recent legal action challenging the eligibility of former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2027 presidential election as an “abuse of court process” and a waste of judicial time.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Tuesday, Maduabuchi said the matter had already been settled by a competent court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and that no appeal has been filed against that ruling. As such, he argued that revisiting the issue in another court is legally wrong and amounts to duplicating a case that has already been decided.
According to him, “An abuse of court process is when you want to relitigate a case or an issue that has already been settled by a court of competent jurisdiction. The issue of the qualification or non-qualification of Dr Goodluck Jonathan has been settled by the court in Yenagoa. Nobody has taken that issue on appeal. And until that judgment is set aside, it remains what the law is.”
The fresh suit, which was recently filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, is seeking to disqualify Jonathan from running for office in 2027 based on Section 137(3) of the Nigerian Constitution, which was introduced through a constitutional amendment in 2018. The section states that anyone who has previously taken the oath of office as President to complete another person’s term can only run for one more term.
However, Maduabuchi argued that this provision cannot be used against Jonathan because it did not exist at the time he first took office in 2010, following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
“What controls a given situation is the position of the law when the act in question was done. When Dr Goodluck Jonathan took the oath of office in 2010, what was the law? Was Section 137(3) part of the Constitution then? No,” he said.
He highlighted that Jonathan took the oath of office based on the 1999 Constitution as it existed at the time, which allowed him to contest for two full terms after completing Yar’Adua’s tenure. The amendment introduced in 2018, according to him, cannot be applied retroactively.
“There was no legal inhibition stopping Jonathan from running in 2011 or even again after that. The law was changed in 2018, long after Jonathan had completed his tenure. You cannot use a law passed in 2018 to judge actions that happened before then,” he explained.
Maduabuchi insisted that unless the 2022 judgment from the Bayelsa court is overturned by a higher court, it remains valid and binding, and any fresh attempt to challenge Jonathan’s eligibility is frivolous and unnecessary.
He also criticised those filing the new suit as “busybodies” who are simply trying to stir political controversy where none exists.
“The court is not a playground for political mischief. If no appeal has been filed against the earlier judgment, then anyone trying to reopen the issue is simply wasting the court’s time,” he said.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan served as Vice President from 2007 and became President in 2010 after Yar’Adua’s death. He was elected in 2011 but lost his re-election bid in 2015. Since then, there has been speculation about a possible return to the presidency, especially with political movements in the lead-up to 2027.
