OBITUARY: Akinjide, legal mathematician whose ’12 two-thirds’ defence sealed Shagari’s victory

On September 26, 1979, weeks after the presidential election that saw the emergence of Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) as president, Richard Akinjide stood before a panel of seven supreme court justices and convinced them that two-thirds of 19 states was ”12 two-thirds”, and not 13. As the counsel to Shagari whose victory was being challenged by Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Akinjide’s arithmetic put a seal to the former president’s victory.

After Shagari was declared president-elect in 16 August 1979, Awolowo went to court to contest that the NPN candidate did not meet the requirements stipulated by the electoral decree of 1977 that governed the presidential election of 1979. The provision stipulates that in order to be elected to office, a presidential candidate must have scored at least one quarter of the total votes cast in at least two-thirds of the states in Nigeria, and the highest number of the votes cast. Nigeria had 19 states at the time. 

In the election which was held on August 11,1979, Shagari polled the highest number of votes cast with a score of 5,688,657, followed by Awolowo who scored 4,916,651. But there was a problem. He failed to score at least a quarter of the votes cast in 13 states which was mathematically the two-thirds of the 19 states, missing out only in Kano where he got 19.94 percent of the votes cast. 

To the amusement of many, Shagari was declared winner by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), leading to a legal tussle between him and Awolowo who employed the services of great minds such as Ayodele Awojobi, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Lagos; Chike Obi, professor of mathematics at the University of Ibadan, and Godwin Ajayi of the department of history at the University of Ibadan.

AKINJIDE’S MATHEMATICS TO THE RESCUE

Awolowo was almost certain the election tribunal was going to declare him winner considering the letters of the decree but that was never going to happen. In its ruling on September 6,1979, the tribunal upheld the argument of Akinjide, who by then was already a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and threw out the submission of Awolowo.

Devastated but still determined, the UPN candidate proceeded to appeal against the ruling at the supreme court where Akinjide rescued Shegari a second time. There, he again argued the two-thirds of 19 to be 12 two-thirds and not 13. This account of what transpired quoted him as arguing that “in order to get one-quarter of the total votes cast in the thirteenth state, the reckoning must not be the total votes but two-thirds of the total votes; meaning that once a candidate satisfied the requirement of obtaining one-quarter of the total votes cast in twelve states and in two-thirds of the thirteenth state, then he should be accepted as having satisfied the requirement of scoring at least one-quarter of the total votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the nineteen states of the federation.”

However, mindful of the inherent lapses in the judgement, the supreme court — wait for it — added a caveat to its judgement, that the verdict must never be cited as a precedent in future cases. That judgement later earned Akinjide ‘the mathematician’ title, having succeeded against the likes of Chike Obi.

APPOINTED MINISTER BY SHAGARI

After that tremendous show at the courts, Akinjide was appointed minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation by Shagari in December 1979, serving in that role until October 1983. It was during his time in office that Nigeria temporarily reversed executions of armed robbers and abolished the decree barring exiles from returning to the country.

What is interesting, however, was that his new boss at the time had served together with him during the administration of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa in the first republic; Shagari was the minister of works while Akinjide was minister of education.

In his speech at the public presentation of the book, ‘Fellow Country Men – the story of Coup D’etats in Nigeria’ by Richard Akinnola, Akinjide recalled how Shagari stripped his ministers of the privilege of having access to monthly intelligence reports.

He had said: “When I was in Tafawa Balewa’s cabinet, all Cabinet Ministers had access to written intelligence reports every month. That was the practice at that time. But when Shagari came in, for reasons which I cannot explain, that practice was no longer followed. 

“But by virtue of my duties as the Attorney-General and as a member of the National Security Council, I continued to have access to some sensitive matters.”

HE BELIEVED THE AMALGAMATION OF NIGERIA WAS NOTHING BUT ‘COMPLETE FRAUD’

In that speech, the late senior lawyer argued that the decision of the British colonial masters to amalgamate the northern and southern protectorates in Nigeria was one of the “root causes” of the nation’s problems.

He also believed the whole process was fraudulent.

Akinjide had said: “When the amalgamation took effect, the British government sealed off the South from the North. And between 1914 and 1960, that’s a period of 46 years, the British allowed minimum contact between the North and South because it was not in the British interest that the North be allowed to be polluted by the educated South. That was the basis on which we got our independence in 1960 when I was in the parliament. I entered parliament on December 12, 1959.

“When the North formed a political party, the Northern leaders called it the Northern People’s Congress (NPC). They didn’t call it Nigeria’s people Congress. That was in accordance with the dictum and policies of Lugard. When Aminu Kano formed his own party, it was called Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) not Nigerian Elements Progressive Union. It was only Awolowo and Zik who were mistaken that there was anything called Nigeria. 

“In fact, the so-called Nigeria created in 1914 was a complete fraud. It was created not in the interest of Nigeria or Nigerians but in the interest of the British. And what were the structures created? The structures created were as follows: Northern Nigeria was to represent England; Western Nigeria like Wales; Eastern Nigeria was to be like Scotland.”

MOVED FOR ADOPTION OF 2014 CONFERENCE REPORT

The late Akinjide was no doubt one of Nigeria’s brightest minds in legal profession having practised since the 1950s when he returned from England where he was first called to the bar after his higher education. 

He also involved in various key conferences in the nation’s history, including the 2005 national political reform conference (NPRC) and the 2014 national conference where he moved the motion for the adoption of the final conference report being the oldest delegate at the age of 82.

The former minister was also actively involved in the drafting of the 1979 constitution, having worked in the judicial system sub-committee of the constitutional drafting committee of 1975-977.

‘HOW I GOT THE SUPREME COURT TO RECOGNISE SHAGARI AS PRESIDENT’

In a 2011 interview, Akinjide later spoke of what transpired in 1979 during the legal tussle between Shagari, his client, and Awolowo. He also dismissed the court’s caveat that the judgement is to never be used as a reference point.

Hear him: “My defence against Chief Awolowo’s petition was predicated on three critical points. One, that there was total compliance in accordance with the electoral law. In the alternative, there was substantial compliance. Thirdly, in any event, the electoral petition and the reliefs sought were flawed and Justice Otutu Obaseki highlighted that very thoroughly. 

“So, from the point of view of total compliance or substantial compliance or the way the petition was presented, we won. Professor Reid, of the University of London wrote me and also told me that what I did has made a notable contribution to constitutional law all over the world. 

“There is no doubt, and that case of Awolowo Vs Shagari has been cited in many electoral petition cases in the country because I hear of some rubbish in some places that the judgement should not be cited.  That is absolute rubbish.”

‘HOW NIGERIA WAS DESTROYED’

Akinjide was one of those who believed the 1966 military coup dealt heavily with Nigeria and was possibly what swerved the course of the nation to the wrong direction.

In a THISDAY interview, he said Nigeria’s destruction started with the coup, largely blaming the politicians at the time for what transpired.

According to him, “I think politicians of the first republic share in the blame of the destruction of Nigeria by allowing the military coup, because military intervention in politics is an abnormal thing. But it happened at a time when Nigeria just started as an independent nation. 

“At that critical time the leader of the opposition was in prison for treason. The south-west was in crisis, that was the period of an operation …. would you agree that politicians of the first republic didn’t manage the situation well and allowed the military to intervene in politics? 

Secondly, when the Prime Minister was missing for a couple of days, the politicians at that time or those who were in charge couldn’t seize the opportunity and present leadership because the nation was in a state of anarchy for two days. We didn’t have a head of government and eventually allowed the military to seize power. 

“By then, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, the president, was outside the country and the acting president, Orizu Nwafor, announced that the politicians had handed over power to the military.”

He added that Nigeria, then 57 years old, still had nothing to celebrate and that while the “only thing that is certain (about the country’s fate) is uncertainty”, he would be happy to see the country celebrate for good reasons and not just for the sake of independence.

Unfortunately, his wait for that celebration to happen was brought to an abrupt end on Tuesday when he was snatched by the cold hands of death at the age of 88 after battling an unknown illness. No doubt he would be greatly missed.

Adieu, Pa Akinjide.