APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The former Vice President of Nigeria and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said that it is the Nigerian state that is the main loser in the Supreme Court verdict, which affirmed Bola Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election.
Addressing a news conference on the Supreme Court judgment affirming Bola Tinubu as duly elected President on Monday in Abuja, Abubakar said: “if the Supreme Court legitimizes illegality, including forgery, identity theft, and perjury.
“If the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, implies by its judgment that crime is good and should be rewarded, then Nigeria has lost and the country is doomed irrespective of who occupies the Presidential seat.
“If the Supreme Court decides that the electoral umpire, INEC, can tell the public one thing and then do something else in order to reach a corruptly predetermined outcome, then there is really no hope for the country’s democracy and electoral politics.”
He also warned that “the consequences of those decisions for the country would not end at the expiration of the current government. They will last for decades. I am absolutely sure that history will vindicate me. We now know what the Supreme Court has decided.”
According to him, Nigerians know more about the person sitting in office as their President and how he got there, and the dangers that it portends for them and the country.
“It is for them, especially the younger generation whose futures are to be shaped by that man, to decide what they want to do with the knowledge,” he said.
Abubakar, however, said that he would not be going away, but would continue to work to deepen democracy and rule of law in Nigeria.
“As long as I breathe, I will continue to struggle, with other Nigerians to deepen our democracy and rule of law in order to attain the kind of political and economic restructuring the country needs.
“That struggle should now be led by the younger generation of Nigerians who have even more at stake than my generation,” he said.
Abubakar therefore called for the amendment of the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Law in order to prevent any court or tribunal from hiding behind technicalities and legal sophistry to affirm electoral heists and undermine the will of the people.
He also recommended that electronic voting and collation of results should be made mandatory, adding: “This is the 21st century. Countries less advanced than Nigeria are doing so already.
Abubakar also recommended that all litigation arising from a disputed election should be concluded before the inauguration of a winner.
The former Nigerian Vice President recommended that a candidate for presidential election should at least garner 50 per cent of the valid votes cast, failing which a run-off should be held between the top two candidates.
While recommending a single six-year term for the office of the President, Abubakar said that the office should be rotated among the six geo-political zones of the country to reduce the desperation of incumbents and promote equity and national unity.
He also recommended that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be mandated to verify the credentials submitted to it by candidates and their parties.
While calling for judicial reforms, transparency in the appointment of judges to reduce corruption in the judiciary, Abubakar also underscored the need to improve transparency in the country’s electoral process and reduce the incidence of corruption and other electoral malpractices.
GIK/APA
Nigeria’s Ex V-P chides judiciary for legitimizing illegality, forgery, identity theft, perjury
