ROLES AND ATTRIBUTES OF ELECTION TRIBUNALS IN ELECTORAL PROCESS IN NIGERIA: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL

Abstract

This paper deals with the formation, role and attributes of the election tribunals in Nigeria. Therefore, in the course of carrying out its constitutionally assigned duties of adjudication, election tribunals have failed to address the age long agitation of technicalities in the dispensation of electoral disputes. Writing on the above topic is like embarking on the hazardous journey as it is a near impossibility to prove election petitions anchored on some grounds. This often time is not far from the attributes and personal idiosyncrasies of some of the judges manning the tribunals. In this paper, the judiciary is critically appraised in a broad manner by interrogating the role of the judges in courts and also their attributes which are brought to bear in the conduct of their judicial business. In this paper, it is demonstrated in lucid terms that these attributes work together to make tribunal judges give decisions that may or may not have the backing of the relevant laws or acceptable by the majority of the electorates. This calls for caution and we made some useful recommendations on how these can be properly addressed to avoid the members of the general public or electorates, losing the confidence they have in the tribunals in Nigeria as it relates to their judgments/decisions in election disputes.