By: Ifeanyi Izeze
For few daysnow, the media has been awash with APC’s faulting of the
candidacy of AtikuAbubakar, the PDP presidential candidate in the just
concluded presidentialelection. The party is arguing that Atiku is a
Cameroonian and ought not tohave taken part in the presidential poll of
Nigeria in the first instance.
Ordinarily thiswould have been treated as a joke but for the obvious fact
that the APC isdeliberately diverting attention from the serious issues
presented at thetribunal all in a ploy to buy time.
Without doubt, the APC and its candidate, Mohammadu Buhari seem not to
have any defense against the petition of thePDP/Atiku challenging the
massive rigging and manipulations of figures by INECin its declared
results of the February 29th presidential election.
It should haveoccurred to the APC and its presidential candidate that
their pedestal responseto the gross allegations of massive rigging and
manipulation of figures was anoutright vindication of the facts and
figures presented by Atiku in hispetition.
Agreed that defendinga lie is a very hard task because you keep
manufacturing lies to explainearlier ones, but questioning Atiku’s
citizenship at this time instead ofaddressing the petitioner’s allegations
of rigging suggests an obviousdesperation on the part of the ruling party.
So they had to divert theattention of the people with this fable. The
unusual time the APC lawyerswasted to counter Atiku’s petition would have
told any discerning mind thatthey were rattled by the solidity of the
verifiable facts in the petition.
They have tried all sorts of mischief to intimidate and harass Atiku allto
no avail. First it was the allegation by the APC against Atiku and PDP
ofhacking into the INEC server to access figures released by the
electoralumpire. On that one they simply roared and melted out.
Second, they came with the threat to arrest Atiku over his alleged movesto
lobby the United States Government not to recognise a new government
inNigeria if Buhari goes on to inaugurate himself without clearing
theallegations of massive rigging, changing of actual election results and
usingthe military to intimidate voters across the country particularly in
theSouthern parts of the country during and after the elections. That also
couldnot hold waters.
Now, they have come with another one that Atiku is not a Nigerian but
aCameroonian because Adamawa state was part of that neighbouring country
evenbefore my great grandfather was born. Haba!
If Atiku is insisting that his case is based on facts and
statisticalevidence, is it not behoving on both the Independent National
ElectoralCommission (INEC) and the APC, to disprove his factual
submissions?
Given the timethey wasted to counter Atiku’s petition before the tribunal,
one would haveexpected the APC lawyers to have come with solid evidence
that there was norigging rather than this ludicrous diversionary arguments
challenging Atiku’squalification to contest the presidential election
because he is not allegedlya citizen of Nigeria.
The panic and diversionary or rather pedestal mode APC has turned on isan
obvious confirmation that Atiku and his party, the PDP, definitely
haveverifiable and incontrovertible evidence to show that the last
Presidentialelection was fraudulent, not credible and did not reflect the
will of theNigerian people.
Recall that itwas in its response to the petition filed by the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP)and its presidential candidate at the Presidential
Election Tribunal, that theAPC averred that contrary to the assertion of
Atiku in his petition, he (Atiku)had no right to be voted for as a
candidate in the election to the office ofPresident of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria held on February 23, 2019. Theparty said the 11.1
million votes recorded in favour of the two petitioners (Atiku and PDP)
should be voided and considered a waste by the PresidentialElection
Petition Tribunal.
Interestingly, whenAtiku was in APC funding Buhari’s campaign in 2014-2015
and even handed hismedia office to run the Buhari campaign then, he was
not a Cameroonian. When heemerged PDP Presidential candidate, he was not a
Cameroonian. When hecampaigned all over Nigeria and was pulling more crowd
than Buhari, he was nota Cameroonian. Now that he has challenged Buhari’s
blood stained and riggedvictory at the polls, Atiku has suddenly become a
Cameroonian. How long can weafford to continue like this as a country?
In every respectit is better to strongly doubt if the APC lead counsel; a
“learned silk” cangoof in such manner by displaying his ignorance of the
Law or will make himselfa cheap article to settle political scores.
The desperateattempt to rewrite our history by political personalities
just to suit theirpersonal interests and narratives, and hold on to power
by all means placinglogic on its head in order to confuse the past and
convince the present abouttheir shenanigans at the last presidential
election cannot work with thepeople.
At best, this isa cheap propaganda and mischief of the highest order;
misrepresentation offacts; figments of lies; and wild imaginations of the
protagonists in thischarade.
The fact that the APC chose to base its defence on the ridiculousassertion
that Atiku is not a Nigerian, should show to the nation the type
ofcharacters we have in the APC and its government. The party’sresponse
was not just too pedestal in a serious matter like this butdiversionary to
steer the nation from the issues being contested by the oppositionparty at
the election tribunal.
As explained by alegal luminary and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in
his comment on thealleged submission by the APC legal team, “Our
groundnorm which is the 1999Constitution of the federal Republic of
Nigeria clearly in chapter 111. Section25, Subsection 1a 1b &1c defines in
an unambiguous manner what it entailsto be Citizens by birth.
“If People fromAdamawa are alien or some of them do not have the
constitutional rights tocontest Election into the office of President
which is the exclusive right ofonly Nigerians with citizenship by birth,
Atiku could not have cleared thisconstitutional hurdles in his last three
attempts of been cleared to contestfor the office of the President Federal
Republic of Nigeria.”
How come the INEC is having problem defending the results of an electionit
conducted and announced? Even APC cannot defend the results of an
electionthey claimed they won, is it not interesting?
As said, ratherthan deflect of the world from the meat of Atiku’s petition
at the Triunal,Buhari and APC should redirect their focus on the points
already raised by thePDP presidential candidate, that is the only path
that can clear their namesfrom the mess the 2019 presidential elections
was believed to be by a majorityof reasonable Nigerians as a result of the
desperation of those who seek to bein power by all means and against the
people’s will.
God bless Nigeria!
IFEANYI IZEZE: iizeze@yahoo.com