The Nation Newspaper Atiku, Obi and fellow election deniers
Resorting to the judiciary for election disputes as enshrined in the 1999 constitution, section six and part VIII of the Electoral Act 2022, has become part of our electoral process. Although the ideal as many have argued is that INEC remains the final arbiter in all elections matters but as many others have also argued, any provision that offers relief to the aggrieved and prevents a loser from appealing to the mob is unarguably healthy for the democratization process.
Atiku had contested for the presidency six times jumping from one political platform to the other until 2023 when he, in breach of PDP constitution and by appealing to ethnic sentiments, secured the party’s presidential ticket which immediately led to the fragmentation of the party into four. Similarly, Obi had jumped from APGA, the platform that gave him an opportunity to serve as a two term Anambra governor to PDP where he was rewarded with VP slot to Atiku in the 2019 election.
Unlike President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, both sore losers, despite not meeting any of the constitutional requirements to become president claimed victory and headed to the Presidential Election Petition Court alleging massive rigging and INEC’s failure to deploy the IREV for the simultaneous transmission of results. With a unanimous ruling of the five judges, their case was dismissed. The ruling aired live was hailed as ‘sound in law’ by leading lights of the legal profession.
We also have in the group, our New York based Adichie Chimamanda , a world acclaimed fiction writer and one of the best thinkers of the century, who from the hearsay reports of her cousins back home, was persuaded the result of the election was “ so unacceptably and unforgivably flawed”. She went on to query US President Joe Biden for “endorsing a president-elect who according to her “has emerged from an unlawful process”.
Finally since history often repeats itself, let us draw a parallel between election deniers of 1993 and 2023. In 1993, we had as key players Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo, Bashir Tofa, Arthur Nzeribe, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Walter Ofonagoro, Clement Apamgbo and Tom Ikimi etc. Today we have Obasanjo, Obi, Atiku, Ezeife, Utomi, Ezekwesili, Adichie and Charles Oputa among others.
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