At the beginning of March 2020, Nigeria’s Supreme Court dismissed an application for the review of its seven-week old decision to judicially install Hope Uzodinma as the Governor of Imo State, citing as its main reason the need to preserve the authority and finality of decisions of the apex court. The court issued what appeared to be a principled defence of the finality of its judgments, declaring somewhat ostentatiously that once it had issued a decision, “it shall remain forever.”
Olukayode Ariwoola, who delivered the judgment of the majority in the review was also a member of the original panel which decided in January 2020 that Mr. Uzodinma had won the election despite being the candidate who came fourth in the tally of votes scored among the contestants on the ballot. Few could recall at the time that Olukayode Ariwoola had previous experience in this kind of improbable judicial…