Politics
FOR-THE-RECORD: Atiku Shreds Supreme Court’s Verdict
Presidential Candidate, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, expressed his feelings on the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) on the poll, last Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.
He basically placed on record his dissatisfaction with the ruling, which upheld the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the elected president.
The former vice president also make recommendations on the way forward.
Below is the full text of Atiku’s speech:
Someone asked me what I would do if I lost my election petition appeal at the Supreme Court. In response, I said that as long as Nigeria wins, the struggle would have been worth the while.
By that, I meant that the bigger loss would not be mine but Nigeria’s 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.
Obviously, the consequences of those decisions for the country will 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.
At critical points in my political life, I always ignored the easy but ignoble path and chosen the difficult but dignified path, the path of truth, of morality, of democracy and rule of law.
I always chose freedom over servitude, whatever the personal discomforts my choice entails. When I joined politics, the critical challenge was easing the military out of power so that civilian democratic governance could be restored in Nigeria.
It later became a very defining struggle, and, as one of the leaders of that struggle, I was targeted for elimination.
In one incident, nine policemen guarding my home in Kaduna were murdered in an attempt to assassinate me. I was also forced into exile for nine (9) months. In addition, my interest in a logistics company that I co-owned was confiscated and given to friends of the military government.
As Vice President in the civilian government that succeeded the military, I, again at great personal cost, chose to oppose the extension of the tenure of the government beyond the two four-year terms enshrined in our constitution.
In response to the official backlash against me, I instituted several cases in the courts, which led to seven landmark decisions that helped to deepen our democracy and rule of law.
At the current historic moment, the easier option for me would have been to fold up and retreat after the mandate banditry perpetrated by the APC and INEC.
But I went to the Nigerian courts to seek redress. I even went to an American court to help with unravelling what our state institutions charged with such responsibilities were unwilling or unable to do, including unravelling the qualifying academic records of the person sworn in as our President and by implication, hopefully who he really is.
I offered that evidence procured with the assistance of the American Court to our Supreme Court to help it to do justice in this case.
I give this background to underscore that what we are currently dealing with is bigger than one or two presidential elections and is certainly bigger than Atiku Abubakar. It is not about me; it is about our country, Nigeria. It is about the kind of society we want to leave for the next generation and what kind of example we want to set for our children and their children.
It is about the reputation of Nigeria and Nigerians in the eyes of the world. We showed incontrovertible evidence that Bola A. Tinubu was not qualified to contest the Presidential Election because he forged the qualifying academic certificate, which he submitted to INEC.
In fact, a simple check of Tinubu’s past records in its possession would have shown INEC that Tinubu broke the law and should not have been allowed to contest the election.
We showed irrefutable evidence of gross irregularities, violence, and manipulations during the elections. We showed incontrovertible evidence that INEC violated the Electoral Act and deliberately sabotaged its own publicly announced processes and procedures in order to illegally declare Tinubu elected.
The position of the Supreme Court, even though final, leaves so much unanswered.
Even the rebuke by retired Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad is a confirmation from within the apex court that all is not well with the Supreme Court. The court and indeed the judiciary must never lend itself to politicization as it is currently the norm with nearly every institution in Nigeria.
By the way, the strong rebuke of the apex court by the revered Justice, who had meritoriously served for more than four decades, should not be swept under the carpet.
The alarm raised by Justice Muhammad and recently, former INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, offer Nigerians an explanation into why the electoral and judicial system have become the lost hope of the common man.
Judges are no longer appointed based on merit but are products of the interplay of politics and nepotism. Worse still, the appointment of electoral officials has also been hijacked by the ruling party as seen in the latest nomination of Resident Electoral Commissioners where card carrying members of the ruling party and aides to politicians in the APC are being appointed into INEC.
When two critical institutions like the court and the electoral commission are trapped in an evil web of political machination, it becomes next to impossible for democracy to thrive.
As a stakeholder in the presidential election of February 25, I, along with other well-meaning Nigerians have done my bit in ensuring that our democratic process enjoys the privilege of full disclosure of the character deficiencies of the current political leadership.
I also believe that even if the Supreme Court believes otherwise, the purpose of technology in our electoral system is to enhance transparency and not merely as a viewing centre. We have to move with the world and not be stuck in time.
Implications of PEPC and Supreme Court judgments
I leave Nigerians and the world to decide what to make of the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision. But here’s my take.
The judgments of the PEPC and the Supreme Court have very far-reaching, grave implications, including the following:
One is the erosion of trust in the electoral system and our democracy. Nigerians witnessed as the National Assembly changed the electoral law to improve transparency in the process. Of particular importance was the introduction of modern technology to help eliminate the recurring incidents of electoral manipulation, particularly during the collation of results.
Nigerians and the world also witnessed as the leadership of the INEC, especially its Chairman and National Commissioner for Voter Education reassured Nigerians on national television multiple times that the use of that technology would be mandatory.
Yet that same INEC undermined the use of that technology during the elections and collation process and declared as winner someone who clearly did not win the Presidential election.
They then went further to take sides in the courts in a dogfight to defend their illegality. Who would convince the millions of Nigerians to vote in future elections after they suffered endlessly on queues to register to vote, to collect PVCs and to vote, based on INEC’s assurances only to see their votes stolen and given to someone they did not vote for?
When people lose trust and confidence in elections, democracy is practically on life support. And by affirming and legitimizing the continued lack of transparency in our electoral system the courts are continuing to usurp the rights of voters to elect their leaders.
The other grave implication is that contestants in Nigeria’s elections should do whatever is necessary to be declared the winner. That includes identity theft, impersonation, forging of educational and other documents, perjury, and violence.
And, as they do so, they should ignore whatever the law says and whatever assurances from the leadership of the electoral umpire about what the law says and what they would do in compliance.
And they would do so knowing that our courts would approve of their behaviour or at best pretend not to take any notice of it.
The third is that if you are robbed of victory, do not bother going to court for redress because your glaring evidence of the robbery will be ignored in favour of the mandate bandit.
Also, your lawyers, however distinguished and accomplished, may be ridiculed by the judges who may also go out of their way to make even a stronger case for the so-called “winner” than even their own lawyers were able to do.
These are clearly self-help strategies and actions bereft of the law and constitutionalism. Only lawlessness and anarchy will result from such, with violence, destruction and implosion and loss of our country likely to follow.
I believe that we still have a small window to prevent these from happening. I still believe that we can rescue this country from the strange imposters that have seized it illegally and are holding it by the jugular.
Let me caution that the leaders of those African countries that have completely collapsed into chaos never came together one day and agreed to collapse their countries. Rather their countries collapsed because of the incremental and compounding individual and collective utterances and actions of those leaders.
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.
Now, let me give a historical perspective to the constitutional evolution that gave birth to the 1999 Constitution.
In the build-up to the current democratic dispensation, agitation was rife amongst members of the political class and a large number of civil society bodies to envision a constitution that would operate a democracy in a functional order after the nasty military regimes.
These agitations and necessities of the circumstance of that time led to the convocation of the 1995 Constitutional Conference, which I was privileged to be a part of, alongside other prominent political actors.
The Constitutional Conference was expected to create the frameworks upon which a new constitution would be built in order to make the dreams of a democratic society.
A number of far-reaching reforms and recommendations were made, which drew from our past experiences and aimed at safeguarding the new constitution from the mistakes of the past.
One such headline recommendation was the concept of rotational presidency anchored on the principle of 6 years’ single term among the 6 geopolitical blocks.
Even the notional idea of delineating the country along geo-political blocks was a creation of the 1995 conference.
Another thematic recommendation at the conference was that the Federal Capital Territory should be given the democratic opportunity to elect for itself a mayor who shall emerge from popular franchise.
These two recommendations were part of the landmark reforms that were submitted to the military government that convoked the Constitutional Conference.
However, and rather disappointingly, the government that midwifed the current democratic dispensation and enacted what is now known as the 1999 Constitution, expunged these two recommendations from what eventually became the body of legislation to govern our fledgling democracy.
As for me and my party this phase of our work is done.
However, I am not going away. For as long as I breathe I will continue to struggle, with other Nigerians, to deepen our democracy and rule of law and for the kind of political and economic restructuring the country needs to reach its true potential.
That struggle should now be led by the younger generation of Nigerians who have even more at stake than my generation.
So, let me make a few proposals that I believe will help.
We can urgently make constitutional amendments that will prevent any court or tribunal from hiding behind technicalities and legal sophistry to affirm electoral heists and undermine the will of the people.
Our democracy must mean something; it must be substantive. Above all, it must be expressed through free, fair and transparent elections that respect the will of the people.
Firstly, we must make electronic voting and collation of results mandatory. This is the 21st century and countries less advanced than Nigeria are doing so already. It is only bold initiatives that transform societies.
Secondly, we must provide that all litigation arising from a disputed election must be concluded before the inauguration of a winner. This was the case in 1979. The current time frame between elections and inauguration of winners is inadequate to dispense with election litigations.
What we have currently is akin to asking thieves to keep their loot and use the same to defend themselves while the case of their robbery is being decided. It only encourages mandate banditry rather than discourages it.
Thirdly, in order to ensure popular mandate and real representation, we must move to require a candidate for President to earn 50% +1 of the valid votes cast, failing which a run-off between the top two candidates will be held.
Most countries that elect their presidents use this Two-Round System (with slight variations) rather than our current First-Past-the-Post system.
Examples include France, Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Poland, Turkey and Russia, Argentina, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar and even Liberia where a run-off is expected to hold in the coming days.
Fourthly, in order to reduce the desperation of incumbents and distractions from governing and also to promote equity and national unity, we need to move to a single six-year term for President to be rotated among the six geo-political zones.
This will prevent the ganging up of two or more geo-political zones to alternate the presidency among themselves to the exclusion of other zones.
INEC should be mandated to verify the credentials submitted to it by candidates and their parties and where it is unable to do so – perhaps because the institutions involved did not respond in time – it must publicly state so and have it on record.
A situation where a candidate submits contradictory credentials to INEC in different election cycles and the electoral umpire accepts them without question points to gross negligence, at best, or collusion to break the law by the leadership of the INEC, at worst.
The submission of contradictory qualifying documents by a candidate as well as those found to be forged or falsified should disqualify a candidate even if the falsification or forgery is discovered after the person had been sworn into office.
The burden of proving that a document submitted to INEC is forged should not be on the opposing candidates in the election. It is never the responsibility of an applicant for a job to prove that the person who eventually got the job did so with forged documents.
In addition to these proposed constitutional amendments, the Electoral Act should be amended to provide that, except where they explicitly violate the Constitution and other laws, the rules and procedures laid down by the electoral umpire and made public for the benefit of the contestants and the voters will be treated as sacrosanct by the courts in deciding on election disputes.
A referee cannot be allowed to set the rules for the game only to change or ignore them when one side has scored a goal or is about to win the match. We must restore confidence in our electoral system which the current leadership of INEC has completely eroded and undermined.
Also, we need well-thought out provisions in the legislation and regulations to reform the judiciary, including the introduction of an automated case assignment system; transparency in the appointment of judges; a practice directory that stresses that the goal of judges in election cases should be to discover and affirm voters’ choice rather than disregarding voters’ choice for the sake of technicalities.
There should also be publicly available annual evaluation of the performance of judges using agreed criteria. By improving the transparency of the electoral process and reducing the incentives to cheat, in addition to transparency in the appointment of judges and other judicial reforms, the number of election petitions as well as corruption in the judiciary will be significantly reduced.
More importantly, we would have succeeded in taking away the right to elect leaders from the courts and return it to the voters to whom it truly belongs.
Gentlemen of the Press, I thank you profoundly for listening.
May God bless you, and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Politics
Nigeria’s Debt Service Ratio Falls To 65% As Tinubu Tackles Economic Woes
In an effort to reduce Nigeria’s debt burden and stabilize the economy, President Bola Tinubu announced on Monday that the country’s debt service-to-revenue ratio has fallen from 97 to 65 percent over the 17 months since he took office.
Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for seven new ministers at the State House, Abuja, Tinubu emphasized the government’s progress in stabilizing the economy despite challenging conditions.
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“For us, it was a challenge when the nation was servicing its debt with 97 percent of its revenue. It was nothing but the edge of the cliff,” Tinubu said.
“But today, I can report to you that we have brought that down to 65 percent, and we have never defaulted in meeting all obligations, both foreign and domestic.”
His remarks follow Afreximbank’s recent projection that Nigeria’s debt service-to-revenue ratio could reach 110.4 percent by 2024.
Afreximbank’s 2024 Nigeria Country Brief warned of a troubling upward trend in debt servicing, which could see the ratio surge from 33.8 percent in 2017 to a projected 110.4 percent next year.
However, with continued reforms, the report suggested the ratio might decline to 62.6 percent by 2025.
In the first nine months of 2023, debt servicing consumed 66.9 percent (₦5.79 trillion) of Nigeria’s total revenue, a slight improvement from 99.3 percent (₦4.23 trillion) during the same period in 2022.
Tinubu, while optimistic about economic recovery, acknowledged the ongoing struggles faced by Nigerians due to a sharp increase in the cost of living triggered by recent economic reforms.
“We have taken the bull by the horns,” the President asserted. “We have stopped the scavengers. We will fully put an end to the profiteers and smugglers of our resources across the country. We are not shirking our responsibility; we are confronting it head-on.”
He further expressed confidence that Nigeria was on a “good path” toward recovery, emphasizing that the government remains committed to re-engineering the economy.
He cited the introduction of a new minimum wage as one measure aimed at mitigating rising living costs.
Monday’s ceremony also saw the swearing-in of seven new ministers, part of a recent cabinet reshuffle.
In two batches, ministers including Idi Maiha (Livestock Development) and Dr Jumoke Oduwole (Industry, Trade, and Investment) took their oaths.
The reshuffle, which saw 10 ministers reassigned, five discharged, and seven new appointments confirmed by the Senate, reflects Tinubu’s stated commitment to reshaping his cabinet to meet Nigeria’s evolving challenges.
As the administration continues to implement reforms, President Tinubu emphasized a long-term vision for economic sustainability, not only for the current generation but also for future ones.
“Despite the challenges, we must undertake the job of re-engineering and retooling this country’s economic path,” he said.
Politics
Edo Deputy Gov, Omobayo Ordered To Court Over Refusal To Vacate Office
A Federal High Court in Abuja has mandated that Godwins Omobayo, the Deputy Governor of Edo State, appear in person on November 26, 2024, following allegations of contempt of court stemming from his failure to comply with a previous ruling.
Justice James Omotosho issued the order on Monday, asserting that Omobayo, described as the alleged contemnor, must be afforded a fair hearing in accordance with Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
READ MORE: Bobrisky Flees Nigeria Amid Legal Turmoil
The court action was initiated by Philip Shaibu, who was reinstated as Deputy Governor after the court invalidated his impeachment by the Edo State House of Assembly on July 17.
Justice Omotosho ruled that the impeachment proceedings lacked due process and that the grounds for Shaibu’s removal did not constitute gross misconduct.
Shaibu’s suit targets several parties, including the Inspector-General of Police and the Edo State House of Assembly, seeking enforcement of the court’s judgment and demanding that Omobayo vacate the deputy governorship position.
Omobayo assumed office on April 8, following Shaibu’s impeachment.
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that Omobayo was served legal documents but failed to appear.
In response, Shaibu’s attorney, Ayotunde Ogunleye, SAN, urged the court to compel Omobayo’s attendance, citing the need to uphold judicial authority.
In delivering his ruling, Justice Omotosho adjourned the case until November 26 for further proceedings.
He directed that hearing notices be served to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th defendants involved in the charge.
“In the interest of justice and to provide the alleged contemnor with an opportunity to defend himself and receive a fair hearing, in accordance with Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), I hereby order that the alleged contemnor appear in court in person on November 26, 2024,” the judge stated.
It is noteworthy that the current tenure of the state government is set to conclude on November 12.
Politics
Presidency Fires Back At Atiku
On the heels of the salvo fired by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria’s 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar, signalling what might be a long-drawn hot exchange of words, the Presidency has made what it called ‘our initial response to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’.
This was contained in a statement put out on micro-blogging site, X, Sunday by the Special Adviser to the President (Information and Strategy), Bayo Onanuga.
The former vice president had detailed the shortcomings of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, making efforts to detail what he would have done differently, that would have better results for Nigeria.
In a swift response, the Presidency countered that Atiku and his ideas “were rejected by Nigerians in the 2023 poll”, based on his antecedents.
The statement reads, “OUR INITIAL RESPONSE TO ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR
“We have just read a statement credited to former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in which he tried to discredit President Bola Tinubu’s economic reform programmes while pushing his untested agenda as a better alternative.
“First, Alhaji Atiku’s ideas, which lacked details, were rejected by Nigerians in the 2023 poll.
“If he had won the election, we believe he would have plunged Nigeria into a worse situation or run a regime of cronyism.
“Abubakar lost the election partly because he vowed to sell the NNPC and other assets to his friends. Nigerians have not forgotten this, nor would they be comforted by Atiku’s antecedents when he ran the economy in the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government between 1999 and 2003.
“As vice president, Atiku supervised a questionable privatisation programme. He and his boss demonstrated a lack of faith in our educational system, and both went to establish their universities while they allowed ours to flounder.
“Talk is cheap. It is easy to pontificate and deride a rival’s programmes even when there are irrefutable indices that the economic reforms yield positives despite the temporary difficulties.
“Despite the futile attempt to hoodwink Nigerians again in his statement, it is gratifying that the former Vice President could not repudiate the economic reforms pursued by the Tinubu administration because they are the right things to do.
“His advocacy for a gradualist approach only showed that he was not in tune with the enormity of problems inherited by President Tinubu.
“It is so easy to paint a flowery to-do list. It is expected of an election loser.
“President Tinubu met a country facing several grave challenges. Fuel subsidies were siphoning away enormous resources we could ill afford, and there was criminal arbitrage in the forex market.
“No leader worth his name will allow these two economic disorders to persist without moving to end them surgically.
“While advocating for gradual reforms may sound appealing, Tinubu took measures that should have been taken decades ago by Alhaji Abubakar and his boss when they had the opportunity.
“Alhaji Abubakar calls for empathy and a human face to reforms. We have no problem with this as it resonates well with our administration’s focus. President Tinubu has consistently emphasised the need for compassion and protection of the most vulnerable.
“The administration has prioritised social safety nets and targeted support for those affected by recent economic transitions.”