By Bala Ibrahim
Something ludicrous is happening in Osun state, and I believe the issue is drawing the attention of lawyers, whose agreement or disagreement would push the matter to the appropriate court, where a legal decision can be taken.
Until then, some us are compulsorily compelled to be learning the litigating language of law, including such words like upheld or denied, even if they vary from our normal language of conversation. Happily, the common language used by judges in Nigeria is English, perhaps because of the British colonial rule.
Being a layman in law, I carried out a search on the classification of courts in Nigeria and the result says: The courts of Nigeria are classified into the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court, and lower courts.
The hierarchy of courts in Nigeria is based on the order of appeal, i.e., the method through which appeal flows. If the judgement at the lower court is not satisfying, an appeal can be made to the higher court in order to get redress and justice. But not the other way round.
Additional search revealed that the Federal courts are: the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court, while the State courts include: the High Court of a State, the Customary Court of Appeal of a State and the Sharia Court of Appeal of a State.
From the arrangement, the Supreme Court is apex. Next in the hierarchy is the Court of Appeal, followed by the Federal High Court or the State courts. In our day to day conversation, upheld stands for a confirmation or support for something that was questioned. The same applies in legal parlance, with an additional authority that says, successful.
If an appeal is upheld in court, it means the appeal has been successful and the lower court ruling is set aside. On the contrary, if the appeal is not upheld, it means the ruling of the lower court is allowed to stand and the appeal has been denied.
The ambition of this article is to make express, in simple and unambiguous language, the position of these courts, the real meaning of appeal, the meaning of upheld and the reason why the Governor of Osun state, the dancing Governor, His Excellency, Ademola Adeleke, must see the imperative of standing with the position of the law, even if he is being advised wrongly against it.
Unlike in dancing, where you are not under any obligation to stick to a particular dancing step, that is in consonance with the drumming or rhythm of the music or song, in governance, especially executive governorship, the Governor is obligated by an oath, called the oath of office.
The Governor must have sworn thus: “I, (name), do solemnly swear/affirm, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that as Governor of the state of Osun, I will discharge my duties and perform my functions honestly to the best of my ability and faithfully in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
Osun state also has a slogan that says, “State of the Living Spring”, the metaphor of which is salvation or preservation from harm or ruin. Acting contrary to the provisions of the constitution or disrespecting the ruling of a court, is an invitation to anarchy, which conforms with the simple meaning of harming the state, or pushing it to ruins.
By the oath of office, Governor Adeleke is banned from disrespecting court rulings, inviting anarchy or dragging the state to a state of ruins, because each act, or their combination, amounts to disrespecting the constitution and the slogan of the state.
It may be recalled that, in the run-up to the local government elections in the state, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun had advised against holding the elections.
He gave his reasons. The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, also advised against holding any election, warning that such a move would be unconstitutional.
Fagbemi cited the February 10, 2025, ruling of the Court of Appeal, which overturned an earlier Federal High Court decision that had removed elected local government officials.
He asserted that the appellate court’s decision effectively reinstated these officials, who are legally entitled to remain in office until October 2025.
“The implication of the Court of Appeal judgment is that the elected officials removed by the Federal High Court have been reinstated and are legally occupying their offices”.
The AGF further referenced a recent Supreme Court ruling affirming local government autonomy, reinforcing the position that the Osun State Government must respect the tenure of the reinstated officials.
However, in a drama that seems in conflict with the hierarchical classification of the courts, as well as an attempt to make a lower court overrule a superior court, Osun state Government went to a State High court, sitting in Ilesa, which overruled the Court of Appeal and ordered the Osun State Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) to conduct elections to fill the vacant positions of local government chairmen and councillors across the 30 local governments in the state.
As expected, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner of all the chairmanship and councillorship seats in all the 30 local government areas of the State.
This was made public by the Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC), Hashim Abioye.
By this act, Governor Adeleke, who had since sworn in the elected officials, but advised them not to report to the office, is not only changing the litigating language of law, but telling anarchy to be on standby in the state, whose slogan is, the State of the Living Spring”.
