OBJ was the Head of State in 1979, stepping in after the death of his boss General Murtala Mohammed, who was assassinated on the bustling streets of Lagos in the abortive coup by Bumka Sumka Dimka on Feb 13 1976. But before Murtala’s eyes were permanently shut in agonizing exit, he had rolled out a transition programme with the termination date for his military government fixed for 1979. With OBJ now in power, and unlike those that graced the seat of power before him robed in Camo, OBJ had no plans to perpetuate himself in power. The General would maintain the agenda of his boss and was determined to transit the country into civilian rule and the military to retire back to the barracks it truly belongs.
True to it, the election held on August 11, 1979, Shagari polled the highest number of votes cast with a score of 5,688,657 and his closest challenger AWO garnered 4,916,651. Shagari clearly got the popular votes but AWO was certain he won’t be returned, he couldn’t be declared, there would definitely be a rerun, Why? Even though Shagari got the popular votes, he failed to score at least a quarter of the votes cast in 13 states which would make ⅔ of lawful votes cast in 19 states, he got in 12, missing out only in Kano where he got 19.94% (243,423 of 1,220,763) of the votes cast.
What then happened?
Shall I Begin?
Shagari not meeting the legal requirements to be declared winner notwithstanding, the electoral body, then called FEDECO with Michael Ani as Chairman duly returned Shagari as President Elect. AWO didn’t jump to the street with wails of Stolen Mandate, trying to incite the people to violence. True politicians are those with genetically wired democratic values, who are magnanimous in victory as they are in defeat. AWO being a legal mind, a Senior Advocate at that knew the next phase of battle would be the Hallowed temple of justice before the Lordships.
As against hiring a 70 year old boy to incite the youths to burn down the Nation, Awo gathered brilliant legal minds, but beyond employing the service of astute men in wigs and gowns, Awo also secured Powerful brains like Ayodele Awojobi, prof of Mechanical engineering, Chike Obi Prof of Mathematics, Godwin Ajayi of the Dept of History because this case is somewhat peculiar and arithmetic of the matter may need the input of not just legal minds but also of men of figures and numbers. Leading Shagari’s legal team was Senior Advocate of Nigeria Richard Akinjide, who threw up magical Mathematics of Pythagoras dimension, saying ⅔ of 19 states isn’t 13 but 12.73 which he interpreted to be 12 whole states and ¼ of ⅔ of the 13th state. Total votes garnered was 1,220,763 votes in Kano, ⅔ being 817,911 votes and then a quarter of that would give us over 200k votes, Shagari secured 243k votes in Kano., that was Akinjide’s argument, which was ruled in favour by the Tribunal and the Appeal Court, and this brought about the famous or infamous 12⅔ 1979 tale.
Devastated but not deterred, AWO proceeded to the Supreme Court to argue the Fractionalization of states to determine ⅔ had no bearing either in the Electoral Decree of 1977 or the Ammendment of 1978. However, mindful of the inherent lapses in the judgement, the Supreme Court added a caveat to its judgement, that the verdict must never be cited as a precedent in future cases as it upheld the judgements from the lower courts. This judgement earned Akinjide ‘the mathematician’ title, having succeeded against professors in the field like Chike Obi. It also earned him his appointment as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation by Shagari.
By Jowosimi Olabamiji Eniitan (@LegendaryJoe)
