A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oba Maduabuchi, has dismissed the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging the eligibility of former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2027 presidential election, describing it as an abuse of court process.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Tuesday, Maduabuchi said the issue of Jonathan’s qualification had already been settled by a competent court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and no appeal had been filed against that judgment.
He stated that until the existing judgment is overturned, it remains the valid legal position, adding that anyone attempting to relitigate the matter is “simply abusing the process of the court and is a busy body.”
The senior lawyer explained that Section 137(3) of the 1999 Constitution — introduced by the 2018 constitutional amendment to limit a person to one further term if they had previously completed another’s tenure — did not exist when Jonathan first took the oath of office in 2010 following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Maduabuchi maintained that the law cannot be applied retroactively and that there was no legal restriction preventing Jonathan from seeking two full terms as President under the constitutional provisions in effect at the time.
He said:
“Let me start by saying that that suit in the Federal High Court Abuja is an abuse of court process.
An abuse of court process is when you want to relitigate a case or an issue that has already been settled by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The issue of the qualification or non-qualification of Dr Goodluck Jonathan has been settled by the court in Yenagoa. Nobody has taken that issue on appeal. And until that judgment is set aside, it remains what the law is, and anybody who decides that he wants to take it to a court of coordinate jurisdiction is simply abusing the process of the court and is a busy body.”
He further argued that the legal framework in force in 2011 should guide the matter, not subsequent amendments.
“But what controls a given situation is the position of the law when the act in the issue was done. What was the position of the law in 2011?
When Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan took the oath of office as President of Nigeria, what was the position of the law? Was Section 137(3) part of our laws then? You already said the law came into effect in 2018.
So when Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was taking the oath of office to complete the tenure of Yar’Adua there was no statutory limitation in existence then which could inhibit him from running his constitutionally guaranteed two terms.
There was no inhibition. When in 2018 you brought in the amendment of 137(3), did Goodluck Ebele Jonathan take an oath as president after the amendment?”
The comments come amid renewed legal and political debates over whether the former president can legally seek a return to Aso Rock in 2027.
