QUOTE

135. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, a person shall hold the office of President until -

(a) when his successor in office takes the oath of that office;

(b) he dies whilst holding such office; or

(c) the date when his resignation from office takes effect;

or

(d) he otherwise ceases to hold office in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

(2) Subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, the President shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of four years commencing from the date, when -

(a) in the case of a person first elected as President under this Constitution, he took the Oath of Allegiance and the oath of office; and

(b) in any other case, the person last elected to that office under this Constitution took the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office or would, but for his death, have taken such Oaths.

-- materials deleted

UNQUOTE

Section 180 is identical for the position of Governor.

Having re-established those facts, let us now continue this essay by presenting  two new sets of facts, and then ask two related questions immediately afterwards.

1.   In Ekiti State, the  governors during the period post-Abacha 1998 to 2007 period were:

   (i)    1998-1999: Military Governor Atanda Yusuf
   (ii)   1999 - 2003:  Chief Niyi Adebayo;  left office May 29, 2003
   (iii)  2003 - 2007:  Mr. Ayo Fayose;  will leave office May 29, 2007 (barring unusual circumstances)

2.  In Nigeria, the Heads of State/Presidents over the same period was:

  (i)  1998 - 1999: General Abdusalami Abubakar
  (ii)  1999 - 2003: Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
  (iii) 2003 - 2007: Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; will leave office May 29, 2007

Now for the two questions:  today is (say) September 6, 2006.

(1)  who is the CURRENT holder  of the position of Governor of Ekiti State and Head of State/President of Nigeria?  The answers are obvious: Ayo Fayose and Olusegun Obasanjo, respectively.

(2)  who is the LAST holder of the position of Governor of Ekiti State and Head of State/President of Nigeria?  The answers are Niyi Adebayo and Abdusalami Abubakar respectively.

Before you read ONE LINE further in this essay, please read the above over very well, and convince yourself about these two questions and the answers given.

Pause....pause....pause

Now for the crucial question:

(1)  When is the the expiration date of the term of office of the last holder of the office of Governor of Ekiti State and Head of State/President of Nigeria?  The answers are May 29, 2003 and May 29, 1999 respectively .

Therefore, the expiration dates of LAST HOLDER depend on whether the CURRENT holder is having a second term or not, and even then,  a second-term office holder CANNOT be his own "last holder" of office.

Again, it is important to spend a few minutes reflecting on this logic....

Pause...pause...pause...

Now let us return to the 1999 Constitution.  According to Section 132(2),  INEC can hold elections for office of President as follows:

QUOTE

132. (1) An election to the office of President shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

(2) An election to the said office shall be held on a date not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.

UNQUOTE

Based on the questions that we asked earlier and answers given, therefore, what we have in Section 132(2) is a spectacular example of  a badly-worded section of an approved Constitution, which in fact should have read:

QUOTE

(2) An election to the said office shall be held on a date not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the CURRENT (not LAST) holder of that office.

UNQUOTE

What all the above means is the following:  the current  Section 132(2)  of our 1999 Constitution which virtually all persons have interpreted so far as limiting INEC to within the period March 30 and April 29, 2007 is badly written, and cannot pass a constitutional test before any court, and certainly not our Supreme Court. 

Therefore INEC should IGNORE it, and rather set election dates within (say) three months of May 29 so that there will be enough time to do run-off elections, hear petitions and so forth.  It can safely BEGIN elections, for example, in the middle of February 2003 WITHOUT violating the Constitution as badly written. That is,   it has WIGGLE room here, which will significantly increase the nation's confidence in averting the possibility of an electoral crisis some 2007. 

The ongoing Mexico presidential election crisis is a case in point, where the presidential elections were held on July 2,  2006 five full months before term of the current single-term president expires on December 1, with the following unfolding calendar:.

-Sunday, July 2 - presidential elections (for a new single six-year term president to replace Vincente Fox of  PAN party.  [Roughly 41 million votes cast; 59% turnout; Diaspora Mexicans vote for the first time ever!]
-Tuesday, July 4 - preliminary results (mandatorily by law) announced by Preliminary Electoral Results Program (PREP)
-Wednesday, July 5 - full official manual count begins
-Thursday, July 6 -  The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) announces the final vote count, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.58 percentage points of victory for Felipe Calderón (PAN) 35.89% (15,000,284 votes), over  López Obrador (PRD) received 35.31% (14,756,350 votes), that is 243,934 votes (or 0.58%) short of the winner. 3 other candidates [including Roberto Madrazo - Alliance for Mexico (PRI, PVEM) who scored 9,301,441 22.26 votes] receive fewer votes.
-Sunday, July 30 - Massive rally in Mexico City by Obrador's supporters asking for a total "vote-by-vote" recount
-August 5 - Federal Electoral Tribunal rules for partial recount only
-Wednesday, August 9 - Partial Recount begins
-Sunday, August 13 - Partial Recount ends
-Tuesday, September 5 -  Felipe Calderón  declared President Elect by the Federal Electoral Tribunal
-Friday, December 1 - Term of Vincente Fox Expires; New President to be sworn in

As an aside, here is a case where a run-off between just Calderon and Obrador (as required by Nigeria's 1999 Constitution) might have helped matters - but Mexican law does not allow for such a second round !