Femi Falana, a senior advocate and human rights lawyer, has emphasized that votes cast in all parts of Nigeria are equal, including in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, which has been interpreted as the 37th state of the country. Falana made this statement during an interview on the Channels Television Sunday Politics show. He referenced Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution, which has become a contentious issue in the aftermath of the 2023 presidential election.
Falana declined to comment further, noting that the issue has become a serious legal matter that is currently pending in court. He did, however, mention that there are already court decisions on the status of Abuja. Falana had previously expressed his legal opinion on Section 134 of the Constitution on January 23, 2023, which was about a month before the presidential election. He pointed out that there is no electoral college in Nigeria and that the votes cast or recorded in any part of the country are equal.
Section 134 of the Constitution specifically requires a winner of a presidential election to meet certain requirements. The first requirement is to score the majority of lawful votes, and the second requirement is territorial spread, which involves securing a two-thirds majority of the states and the Federal Capital Territory. Since the FCT has been interpreted to be a 37th state in Nigeria for the purpose of the constitution, Falana did not see any controversy at the time he expressed his opinion.
However, with the issue now pending in court, Falana is reluctant to speak definitively on the section because there are existing court decisions on the status of Abuja. Section 134 sub-section 1 (b) of the 1999 Constitution states that a winner of a presidential election must not have less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
It is worth noting that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), failed to secure 25% votes in the FCT. This raised concerns about the interpretation of that section of the Constitution. In response, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party have filed petitions at the Presidential Election Tribunal, challenging Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the 2023 presidential election. Atiku and Obi were placed second and third, respectively
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