THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY AND THE QUESTION OF 25% IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VICTORY

Abstract

On the 5th of February 2023, Nigerians and the international community witnessed what is believed to be one of the biggest political events in Africa’s most populated country. Over 40million people marched to the polls to exercise their civic duty and choose the right leader. In the end, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as the winner. It is no news that the above-mentioned candidate has many controversies tied to his name; however, his winning the election caused a greater up rise nationwide particularly among lawyers and political analyst. In a petition submitted to the Election Petition Tribunal on 25th March, 2023, one of contentions raised was that the elected candidate did not satisfy the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the election because he had failed to obtain not less than 25% of votes in the FCT even though he polled the highest number of votes in the election. The question though having been laid to rest by the electoral tribunal still makes for good argument especially when the Supreme Court is yet to imprint its stamp on the said question. This issue has divided the legal community into two schools of thoughts, those who believe that obtaining not less than 25% of votes in the FCT is mandatory and those who believe it is not. Based on the argument, this essay seeks to examine the question of not less than 25% and the FCT. It seeks to achieve this by firstly giving an overview of Election Petitions and the need for such in a country like Nigeria including the laws regulating it. Then, this essay shall provide an in-depth analysis of the 2023 election and the petition that arose from it examining the issue of 25% and how the court has ruled on matters analogous to the subject matter of this essay. Finally, this essay shall highlight arguments from notable learned silks in Nigeria regarding the issue before arriving at a conclusion on how such issue can be resolved.