Why Nigeria should be suspended from the Commonwealth

Baroness Patricia Scotland QC

Commonwealth Secretary General

Marlborough House, Pall Mall,

London SW1Y 5HY,

United Kingdom

October 1, 2023

RE: NIGERIA SHOULD BE SUSPENDED FROM THE COMMONWEALTH FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES & FOR EROSION OF DEMOCRATIC GAINS THROUGH A FRAUDULENT ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL.

Dear Baroness Patricia Scotland QC

Madam SG, I am a member of the Commonwealth. An Investigative journalist, a Pan African by birth, an international activist, an international watchman who defends MILLIONS OF THE VOICELESS CITIZENS. Therefore, what happens in any Commonwealth nation affects me. I was born in Uganda and I reside in United Kingdom the Headquarters of the Commonwealth; therefore, a better Commonwealth is s plus to me.

Madam SG you and I have struggled for people’s rights across the globe. In 1998 as the Attorney General you were instrumental in the formation of ICC to watch against Human Rights abuses in the world. In Britain we belong to the same Party of Labour Party which I have voted for three decades.

Madam SG, Nigeria with a population of 220 million people would have been a FRONT GATE for the entire Commonwealth &Africa. But something is very strange. It has never worked before and is not working now and it might not work in future unless a miracle comes.

Madam SG, since 1966 there has been a loss of democracy and latent encouragement of destruction of human Rights in Nigeria, and now from 2010 Nigeria has become a HAVEN of terrorists, killings, abduction of people, rampant corruption and now judicial electoral fraud that could breed violence in the country.

Madam SG, you are QC and you have been before many courtrooms in the world. It is in the doctrine of good law that an Election Petition needs to be approached differently from other litigation because it is not a dispute between the individual parties at court. But between each party at court and the entire country represented by the population that voted in the election.

Madam SG, any Tribunal or court applying technicalities in election petition adjudication commits an act of punishing the entire country for filing errors made by legal counsels. This certainly has no bearing with justice, fairness and good conscience.

Madam SG, it is an ant-people application of legal ‘punctuation errors’ to favour vested interests other than the people themselves. In democracy election of leaders must emanate from the choice of the people whether concluded at the polls or decided in the courtroom. The COURT in Abuja slaughtered all the rules of LEGAL fraternity.

Madam SG I want to inform you that I attended Chatham House meeting where the INEC Chairperson described to the entire world how WONDERFUL the PREPARATIONS for the February 2023 Elections were to be. I have also read the report of Commonwealth Observer Team and I concluded that Nigeria needs to be called out for HUMAN ABUSES.

Madam SG but democratic Justice can only be done at election petition when the Judges focus on extracting the will of the people already expressed in the disputed elections, from the evidence presented before it, not on any legal ‘punctuation error’, aka technicalities.

Madam SG, the Commonwealth law is very clear. It was sad that the 5Judges relied on technicalities for election petition rulings that throws up winners that suffer illegitimacy crisis that ultimately bear negatively on the country. This includes the courts and the entire judicial system.

Madam SG, it should be noted that in the recent times in Nigeria, you hear of expressions like ‘Supreme Court Governor’ or ‘Supreme Court Senator’, etc.  these are peoples’ voices of rejection for such individuals; affirming that they were not elected by them but imposed on them by the court.

Madam SG President Tinubu is a “TRIBUNAL PRESIDENT “not peoples elected President. This of course debases the courts and reduces the confidence of the people in the Judiciary, and very likely further encourage electoral violence and conflicts by desperate politicians who will fight at all costs in the field since they no longer trust the courts to look at petitions on their merit.

Madam SG it has become a norm that employing technicalities in election petition adjudication is an easy way to compensate bad acts with good rewards. It is a way to encourage bad people with lots of money to venture into politics and grab power, knowing that even if they cannot win the peoples acceptance and votes, they can do so with violence, and then rely on the courts to validate their roguery.

Madam SG , this done  with the gavel by simply inducing it to look for a technical error in the petitioners’ filing upon which to kill the possibility of hearing the substantial issues in the petition.

It is a recipe for enabling emergence of leaders who have no compassion for the citizens nor feel they owe anyone the duty of accountability. No country in the common wealth can make meaningful development this way.

Madam SG, if good conscience, honesty, integrity and democratic principles are elements for assessing the ruling of the Nigeria’s 2023 PEPC, then it will in no way pass the test of democratic worthless and of course not worth celebrating.

Madam SG there are those celebrating it – for whatever reason I don’t know. Nevertheless, it is only a matter of time before those who celebrate become victims of the comeuppance of such an anti-people legal validation of an obvious outcome of a fraudulent process.

The Judiciary owes Nigeria and humanity a duty to rectify the wrongs of this ruling. The onus lies on the higher court to either reset this normalisation of the abnormal or sustain it.

Madam SG whichever way the higher Court adjudicates in future, all Nigerians of goodwill and conscience that have remained resolute standing with the truth, especially those going through persecutions for that sake, must keep their faces up and celebrate their courage in standing with the truth at a time they are the most endangered species in Nigeria’s sociopolitical economy.

Madam SG North or south, East or West, truth is truth, it does not change. In the man that truth dies, living is nothing less than a putrid existence. To turn the truth into a lie for money is to have sold one’s soul and essence at that amount.

Madam SG your team of Observers might have seen what they wanted to see or observe. But under the circumstances that prevailed and the way the courts have shown the world true colours of justice I personally will not hide behind the cloak of ‘fake patriotism’ to ask people to move on in error.

Madam SG you as a senior counsel of highest bar you know it well, that no good will ever come from persistence in error. Error plus error is more error. To think that abundant good will sprout from bad is nothing but delusion. Nemo dat quod non habet – no one can give what they don’t have.

Madam SG, Zimbabwe was suspended from the commonwealth on alleged grounds of fraudulent election in 2002. Why has the commonwealth not reprimanded Nigeria for all the bad deeds of election fraud and abuse of human rights using judiciary.

Madam SG, I draw your attention to the fact Nigeria is the only country in the Commonwealth still HOLDING POLITICAL PRISONERS on trumped up charges up now.

Madam SG, why have you in your own capacity as SG of Commonwealth not intervened to ask why a man is kidnapped from one Commonwealth country to another and the Commonwealth is silent on the matter?

Madam SG, I have written this open letter to alert you about the deteriorating human Rights records in both Nigeria and Cameroon (Biafra & Ambazonia) that are member states of the Commonwealth. Britain the head of Commonwealth stands for values of humanity. It cannot head an organization which watches of human Rights abuses and call itself a COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS?

Madam SG, this letter seeks to remind you about the time of campaign for the first term of office where our CORE value was to bring peace and harmony to the nations of COMMONWEALTH. It is a letter to make my position clear that most of us campaigned for you in the African Commonwealth because we wanted accountability in the Commonwealth.

Madam SG, in conclusion I put it to the public that Nigeria’s May 2023 Election was a SHAM and if the Commonwealth gave it legitimacy then God is the SAVIOUR for all of us. Such a democratic deficit could brew into a future conflict for the leading Commonwealth state in

Africa.

Madam SG, Nigeria should have been SUSPENDED from the Commonwealth for eroding the very principles of democratic foundation that Commonwealth stands for. The weak oversight roles have led to the destruction of democratic space in most Commonwealth states of Africa. 

Madam SG, perhaps the Commonwealth should think of starting CIVIC education on matters of democracy and Elections in most Commonwealth Africa.  Apart from Tanzania and South Africa where tension has been low on Presidential SLOTS due to the use of SIMPLE majority system other states with 50+1 systems have had ROUGH after elections.

Madam SG, I leave a question for you and those who will read this historical letter: In Nigeria 94 million Registered voters were recorded by INEC, out of this 68million did not come out to vote and only about 26million cast their vote, then a COURT of 5 Judges who were appointed by the ruling party sat and decided a matter of UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE of the over 200 million people ON A TECHNICALITY NOT ON SUBSTANCE -SO WHERE IS THE RATIONALE?

GOD BLESS THE COMMONWEALTH

Thanking you in advance

I remain

Yours truly

Dr. David Nyekorach – Matsanga

FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN OF PAF

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST/ PEOPLES WATCHMAN / ACTIVIST

1.10.2023