Atiku Abubakar. |
The
presidential elections seem to have been concluded and the winner announced but
it is not yet over.
By
rejecting the results and heading for court, Atiku Abubakar, the PDP's
presidential candidate has extended the presidential contest which result could
be in his favour.
This
time around, only the judiciary, especially the justices of the Supreme Court
of Nigeria will "elect" or determine who shall become the substantive
Nigeria's president.
Nigerians
should refresh their minds on how, the current chieftains of APC especially,
Rotimi Amaechi dethroned Celestine Omehia in Rivers state, how Aregbesola
replaced Prince Oyinlola in Osun state, and how Adams Oshiomhole had to take
the governorship seat from Prof. Osunbor in Edo state.
The
above named APC politicians achieved their electoral victories through the
courts many months after the winners who they unseated became eventual losers,
were sworn in. All these happened in the last 16 years when PDP was in power
and had all apparatuses of power under their almpit.
I
am sure that President Buhari and some leaders of APC have realised that there
is a rattle snake in their presidential roof going by the judicial
pronouncements in the cases of Oshiomhole versus Osunbor (Edo) and Aregbesola
versus Oyinlola (Osun) where irrefutable proofs of rigging, noncompliance with
electoral guidelines and proven cases of election violence would lead to a
judicial cancellation of the results and recomputation of remaining valid votes
and thereafter announce the winner.
PDP
and some observers claim that the use of card readers in the south disinfranchised
many voters while manual voting was allowed in the extreme north. The
implications of such lapse in the use of card readers across board seem to have
favoured the winners.
In
his acceptance speech, Buhari had cautioned his supporters not to gloat and
deride the losers even though Adams Oshiomhole would not hear of that. He has
been gloating and ridiculing Saraki over his loss.
Buhari
who is an experienced presidential election results contestant in court knows
that the final verdict is yet to be given on his re-election bid. Anything is
possible.
Shebi
APC people call Atiku a thief? They will see his awesome skills in court.
With
the vigilance of a thief, Atiku who had a prior knowledge of rigging plot
against him wired his agents and undercover observers with secret cameras aided
with satellite photography which were warehoused in the cloud out of reach of
evidence destroyers.
Atiku
had invested heavily in surveillance technology and has been able to record all
the electoral malefesances committed in the areas where APC won the big
numbers. He anticipated it and he was prepared for it. His evidence in court
would be tortuous, painstaking and irrefutable. And he has good lawyers who had
handled such cases before. Nigeria may see the best of Wole Olanikpekun, Kanu
Agabi and Onyechi Ikpeazụ assisted by the best technical and forensic experts
money can buy. He knows how to assemble a crack team. He also knows that this
is his best opportunity to win the presidency.
Atiku
knows that our laws had been amended to allow deposition of electronic evidence
and he will gleefully tender more than sufficient amount of evidence to prove
his case to annul the votes in areas of interest. It would be an earthquake. It
is going to be the mother of all presidential contests which judgement shall be
a reference material for the students and teachers of law in Nigeria and
beyond.
Has
any of those gloating over Buhari's victory even looked at the INEC's electoral
guidelines, particularly the one that insisted that no vote would count unless
the voter was accredited using a card reader?
Even
though the Supreme Court had ruled that the use of card readers was unknown to
the electoral act but INEC adhoc officers' insistence on card readers usage in
some areas and not using same in some areas where jumbo figures were recorded
for Buhari will make the honourable Justices decide to cancel the results in
those areas affected in favour of equity and good conscience. If this happens,
Atiku would be announced the winner.
I
expect Atiku's legal team to keep it simple. I believe that they would select
those states that gave Buhari huge votes and apply for their invalidation based
on incontrovertible evidence for noncompliance with INEC's guidelines to which
other voters were subjected. Borno, Kebbi, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi would make
an interesting challenge. When material discrepancies are proven, Atiku would
be announced the winner.
Another
perspective that should give the APC and President Buhari goose pimples is that
our anti-corruption President and his executives shall be at the mercy of the
judiciary.
The
executive has submitted its neck on the chopping table of the Judiciary they
have humiliated since 2015 and deemed corrupt. It is this same Judiciary that
the executive have decapitated and subjected their head and other ranking
members to ridicule, would rely on to survive. Who will feed or arm an enemy?
Judiciary
is like a cult and they understand the meaning of revenge or Omerta and like
wounded souls carry out their revenge in a legal way. They have now presented
to them by fate a once in a lifetime's opportunity to end their pains, mindless
indictment and harassment.
It
is a matter of self preservation for the new electors especially some of them
who made mistakes in their assets declarations. They, by now, would be laughing
at anti-corruption crusaders as Obasanjo laughed Atiku in 2011.
My
pain in this Atiku's decision to challenge his loss in court is that a huge
uncertainty has been created in the polity.
Many
local and foreign investors in Nigeria would have to await for the judicial
pronouncement of who will be Nigeria's president. For now, foreign direct
investments would continue to be short term until the haze is cleared.
Even
though I had congratulated President Buhari on his victory but, with the
decision of Atiku to contest his loss in court, I am being tempted to continue
aticulating, albeit in a muted form, until our Lord Justices of the Supreme
Court of Nigeria conduct their own finite election between Atiku and
Buhari.
Fellow
wailers should be encouraged by the following verses from the Book of
Lamentation chapter 3 verses 36-38 as reproduced below :
"To
defraud a man in his lawsuit, of these things the Lord does not approve.
"Who
is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded
it?"
"Is
it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?"
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