On Tuesday 21 April, 2020 it was announced that the former minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide is dead. Who was he and his contribution to the country? Let’s discuss history:
In 1979, Alhaji Sheu Shagari was declared the elected president of Nigeria. A faction of political commentators, analysts and historians were of opinion that Alhaji Shagari would not have been, except for Chief (Lawyer) Richard Akinjide “mathematics.” I belong to the faction.
And I was happy to hear some professors of Law agreed to this also in some Nigerian universities. I learned this during one of multitude of discussions with two friends who are studying Law the Northern part of the country.
Without undue repetition, national elections took place in the years 1959 and 1979 (20 years interval). These two years shared too many coincidences in political history. I got to derive this while compiling details for my 2019 thesis “Nigeria Is Not A Country” which, after gathering all the information needed I could not combine them up, for the fear of being accused of treasonous motives.
In 1979, Nigeria had 19 States only. And presidential election was coming up in those days. There were five people in the race:
1. Alhaji Sheu Shagari (of National Party of Nigeria [NPN]).
2. Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo (of Unity Party of Nigeria [UPN]).
3. Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe (of Nigeria People’s Party [NPP]).
4. Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim (GNPP)
5. Alhaji Aminu Kano (People Redemption Party [PRN])
For anyone who is in the histories of Nigeria, ours has been a country “mal-amalgamated” on explosives; which are capable of going off anytime. And it did in 1959 and 1979.
RICHARD AKINJIDE AND THE MATHEMATICS
Away from the latter-day adjective, Akinjide was not a mathematician. In fact, he was NPN National Legal Adviser. Chief Richard Akinjide was a well-known lawyer, politician (being NPN’s unsuccessful candidate in the then Ọyọ State), a former Federal minister and member of the dissolved Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) and the Constitute Assembly. All these are necessary to explain that Lawyer Akinjide was a very important and high-rank individual.
In Section 126 (2) of the then New Constitution and Section 34A of the Electoral Decree, it is said:
A candidate for an election to the office of the President shall deemed to have been duly elected where there being more 2 candidates for the election:-
(a) He has the highest number of votes cast at the election: and
(b) He has nothing less than one quarter of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the federation.
Everyone naturally assumed that two-thirds of the 19 states of the Federation was 13. Everybody knew, of course, that the two-thirds of 19 is 12 2/3 but since it is usual to refer to a state in bits and sections, the figure was rounded up to 13. Thus, subsection (b) above was interpreted that: “a presidential aspirant must have the highest number of votes cast at the election in addition to securing 25% of the votes in each of at least 13 states to emerge as winner”.
Analysts and commentators in the media all made the same assumption and nobody questioned the assumption probably because nobody envisaged a situation under which another interpretation could be put upon the clause.
None of the parties secured 25%. NPN, which put up the best performance, satisfied the condition in most states, but had only 19% in Kano and its votes in Ọyọ and Anambra had gone under 20%. (12.75% and 13.50% respectively). Other parties did not fare well in the race.
Everyone awaited the result of the presidential election with trepidation to see how things would go. Some people were already looking forward to a run-off tentatively scheduled for August 18. Things appeared gloomier for the NPN in the face of the proposed alliance of the GNPP, the NPP and the UPN whose strength at the electoral college stood at 1199 as compared with NPN’s 692. Even if NPN merge with PRR as was being planned, the other three parties 999 against 892 for the NPN camp. All focused on Kano.
However, on the night of August 13 Chief Richard Akinjide set the country ablazed with the “legal” interpretation of “one quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of two-thirds of all the States in the federation”. Speaking to John Chiahemen of the National Television, Akinjide emphasized that two-thirds of 19 was definitely not 13 and since what was being shared were votes rather than solid territory, a legal interpretation of the relevant provision was that the victorious candidate must have a minimum of 25% of the votes in 12 states as well as 16.66 percent being 25% in the 13th state. (NEW NIGERIA newspaper published Akinjide’s exposition on August 15 with the title “NPN Gives Winning Formula”).
August 14: Kano results were released and it showed that the NPN secured 19.94 percent of the votes. The NPN automatically supported the legal advice of its National Legal Adviser and issued a statement to the effect.
On the other hand, prominent members of the other parties were quick to react to Akinjide’s interpretation of the Constitution. The NPP argued that it was a matter of common sense that 13 is two-thirds of 19 states since it was impracticable to have fractions of a state. Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya (NPP unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate of Lagos State) threatened to go to court should FEDECO buy Akinjide’s formula which he described as fraud. Nnamdi Azikwe was reported as describing the formula as a product of intellectual dishonesty.
The UPN did immediately make any official statement on the subject but the NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (owned by Chief Obafemi Awolowo) gave prominence to statements by citizens who ridiculed or objected to the formula.
FEDECO Boss, Chief Ani, refused to be drawn into the controversy and announced that if a run-off became necessary it would be held seven days after the final results were known. This statement kept kept hope alive in those who look forward to a second ballot.
It never came……
At about 1p.m on Thursday, August 16, Alhaji Sheu Shagari was declared the elected president to the surprise of all and sundry. The surprise was born out of disbelief that FEDECO would adopt the ordinary meaning of two-thirds of 19 as propounded by Akinjide.
The electoral declaration was signed and read by Returning Officer for the presidential election, Mr. Frederick Louis O. Mekiti.
The announcement stunned even Shagari supporters who were not sure FEDECO would accept Akinjidele’s formula and supporters of other parties who never thought the formula was worth it.
REACTIONS TO THE “INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY”
* Obafemi Awolowo was eventually edged that he personally represented himself in the court.
* FEDECO Boss, Chief Ani was alleged to have been bribed with 1 Million Naira (some said 4 Million).
* Nnamdi Azikwe threatened, but didn’t go to court eventually.
* The plan of collation of parties was latterly suspended.
* Azikwe, Awolowo, Aminu Kano later said they had given up the matter to God.
The rest, they say, is history.
For years, I listened to Gbenga Adeboye saying “Akinloye nkọ àti Akinjide Òníṣírò (What of Akinloye and Akinjide the mathematician)?” in his popular track, YORÙBÁ RONU. How could I have known that it has a great history behind it????
21 April, 2020
Jimoh Taofik Adekunle
(Jimson Jaat Taofik)
