- * As Rumours Of His Alleged Failing Health Spreads
- Uncertainty Still Prevails Over May 29 Power Handover
By NewsLeader Reporters
Barely 36 days to the expected inauguration of a new government that will take over from President Muhammadu Buhari's administration on Monday, May 29, 2023, there is still uncertainty over, whether or not, the Presidential candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Saturday February 25th 2023 Presidential election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will be present in the country for that historic event, being the declared winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Tinubu's victory, as proclaimed 'President-elect' by the INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmoud, on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, has already been challenged at the Election Petition Tribunal of the Appellate Court in Abuja by two of his co-presidential contenders for the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Peter Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Prof. Mahmoud, while declaring the results, proclaimed thus: “I certify that I am the returning officer for the 2023 presidential election held on the 25th of February 2003. That Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and returned elected".
However, a displeased Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, alleged electoral irregularities in the conduct of that election and in the declaration of it's results amongst other allegations and prayers before the court. Obi, who, according to INEC, came third in the disputed election, polled a total of 6, 101, 533 votes. He jointly sued with his party, LP.
He alleged that the election was characterised by irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest for the election. Obi premised his claim on the grounds that Tinubu “was fined $460,000 for an offence involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in case no:93C 4483″ between the United States of America and Bola Tinubu.
Still on the issue of alleged non-qualification, Obi contends that Bola Tinubu’s running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, was nominated for two separate constituencies – as Borno Central senatorial candidate and vice-presidential candidate for the whole of Nigeria in the same election season. He argues that the law provided that a presidential candidate shall nominate another person as his associate who is to occupy the office of vice president.
Peter Obi recalled that Tinubu had nominated Shettima as his vice-presidential candidate on July 14, 2022 while he (Shettima) was still representing Borno Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly. He added that the APC nominated Shettima as its candidate for Borno Central Senatorial District as of July 15, 2022, while already chosen by Tinubu as his running mate.
Obi stated that Shettima ought not to have allowed himself to be nominated in “more than one constituency”, as this act was allegedly in clear violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act. He vowed to prove in court that APC’s “purported sponsorship” of Senators Tinubu and Shettima while he (Shettima) was still representing Borno Central Senatorial district, rendered their candidacy “invalid.”
The Labour Party Presidential candidate however added that “…for this reason, the votes purportedly recorded for” Mr Tinubu “at the presidential election were/are wasted votes and ought to be disregarded”.
Peter Obi also alleged that the APC candidate failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and that he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Among Obi's allegation, is that the election was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the provision of the electoral law.
He, therefore, urged the court to either declare him the president-elect, in the belief that he scored the majority of the lawful votes during the election, or nullify the entire election and order a fresh presidential poll. Obi called on the court to declare him the president-elect, and order the INEC to issue him a certificate of return. He also urged the court to void the certificate of return “wrongly” issued to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
However, in the petition by Atiku Abubakar which he also jointly brought with his party, PDP, he contends that he did not come second with a total vote score of 6,984,520 in the controversial election as declared by INEC. While asking the court to also declare him Nigeria’s president-elect, he alternatively urged the court to cancel the election and order a fresh poll owing to alleged irregularities that allegedly flawed the February poll in several thousand polling booths.
Part of Atiku's seven prayers before the post-election court, are that: Tinubu’s election “is invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.” He also cited what he described as INEC’s “failure to electronically transmit the election results in real-time” and which allegedly compromised the outcome of the presidential poll.
Atiku added that the alleged substantial non-compliance with the law affected the result of the election, in that Tinubu “ought not to have been declared or returned as the winner of the election.” He further contended that INEC “wrongly returned” Tinubu “as the winner of the election, allegedly allocating to him 8,794,726 votes while ascribing to him (Atiku) 6,984520 votes.”
Atiku prayed the court to determine that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the time of the election was not qualified to contest for the said election.
“That it may be determined that the return of the 2nd Respondent (Mr Tinubu) by the 1st respondent (INEC) was wrongful, unlawful, undue, null and void having not satisfied the requirements of the Electoral Act and constitution…which mandatorily requires” Mr Tinubu “to score both less than one quarter (25%) of the lawful votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the federal and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
He urged the court to declare him the winner of the presidential election, as he “scored the majority votes cast.
The PDP Presidential candidate explained that contrary to INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmoud’s repeated assurances in the build-up to the general elections to conduct the best election in Nigeria’s democratic history, the electoral umpire failed to electronically transmit results in real-time from polling units to INEC’s “electronic collation system and Results Viewing Portal (IReV)” using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
Atiku said “by reason of the foregoing, there could not have been any valid and lawful collation and announcement of the result of the election under the Electoral Act, without the prior electronic transmission from the polling units to INEC …IReV portal using the BVAS.” He stated that INEC failed to comply with Section 66 of the Electoral Act which is incorporated with Section 134 of the Nigerian constitution, arguing that the law provides for “geographical spread” which must be met by the winner of the election.
Atiku equally based his petition on the ground that the margin of lead – 1,810,206 votes – was less than the number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) collected in “the polling units where elections were cancelled and did not hold across the country. ” Consequently, he maintains that INEC’s declaration of Mr Tinubu as the winner of the poll was “hasty, premature and wrongful.”
The PDP candidate further accused INEC of manipulating votes as according to him, electoral officials “suppressed” Atiku’s votes, crediting Asiwaju Tinubu and Mr Peter Obi with the said stolen votes. He however stated that Tinubu is also not elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the poll.
He equally said that Tinubu, at the time of the election, was not qualified to vie for the presidency of Nigeria. In the alternative, Atiku asked the court to make an “order directing” INEC “to conduct a second election (run-off) between” him and Tinubu.
However, as the issues in the court petitions rage on, and with Bola Tinubu's whereabout and his current state of well-being still unknown, 36 days to May 29 handover date, some of his handlers and close associates have assured that there is indeed nothing to worry about the APC Presidential candidate.
According to a lead story published in Thisday Newspaper edition of Sunday, April 23rd, 2023 (today), an unnamed "loyalist" of Tinubu was quoted by the newspaper to have emphatically assured the nation that the Asiwaju (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) is "coming back on Monday (April 24), "barring any unforeseen circumstances". This "loyalist" was also quoted to have said, as a statement of fact, that the man equally known as the 'Jagaban of Borgu' will definitely "arrive Monday evening" on the shores of Nigeria for the May 29 handover event.
Whatever the "unforeseen circumstances" might be, Nigerians are deeply concerned and are eagerly expecting the safe return of the Asiwaju, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who had been away from the country to France and other European countries for a post-election vacation and sundry engagements, since Tuesday night, March 21, 2023, according to his Media Office in an earlier statement when the politician travelled.
His Media Office also hinted in the official Tinubu's Out-of-Town statement, that after his full rest in Paris and London, he would proceed to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah (Lesser Hajj) and the Ramadan Fasting before returning to Nigeria. It is noteworthy, that the Ramadan Eid-el-Fitri festival will effectively end same Monday, April 24, 2023.
Going by Tinubu's public itinerary as earlier unveiled by his Media Office in March, not a few Nigerians are wondering whether he has indeed performed the Lesser Hajj, as no credible news report or pictures of him in the Holy Land for the religious event has been sighted in the traditional and social media ever since he travelled out of the country a month and two days ago. It is however not clear whether he would still embark on the Hajj after his reported return to the country on Monday (tomorrow), according to Thisday Newspaper report.
In the past 33 days of Tinubu's absence from the country on vacation, rumours are rife that he probably was not in a good state of health. The rumour is strongly fuelled by the evident fact that unlike in the past when the Asiwaju travelled for such vacation or for medical care and usually in Europe, pictures of him enjoying his vacation or recuperating from his medical treatments or even receiving visitors who often troop in to facilitate with him, are often ubiquitous on the internet and in the Nigerian media.
But the inability of his handlers to make images of him indulging in vacation activities available to assuage public curiosity, has further exacerbated the on-going rumours that his health was probably in bad shape and is still being managed to a successful point. Also, the fact that Tinubu's wife, Senator Oluremi and his son, Seyi, were yet to be publicly seen, especially having a good time with their family patriarch, as people in a vacation, is however, raising more public concern, particularly, as the May 29 handover draws closer.
Not many Nigerians could bet that all is well in the Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council family, despite several press statements being attributed to Bola Tinubu over one issue or the other. Some of the old photographs or video of him being allegedly Photo-shopped or manipulated to convince the public, in one way or the other, about Tinubu engaging in activity, does not help the believeability of stories told about him. In most cases, such stories and images trending on social media have been disproved as works of cyber manipulation.
However, 36 days to May 29 power handover, Nigerians still feel an air of uncertainty despite assurances from the nation's prime security establishments that the transition to the next administration will be hitch free.
A building materials merchant based in Nyanya, Abuja, Otunba Opeyemi Adegoke, expressed his concern about the whole situation thus:
"Well, the only thing we can hold on to now as citizens of Nigeria as far as May 29 handover is concern, is that the military authorities and the DSS (Department of State Service) have fully assured us that there's no cause for alarm and that the handover will be successful". Adegoke adds that, "even at that, where is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu? Where is Jagaban? Nobody has seen him or heard anything from him yet apart from what we are told in the news that he said this or did that. People are acting in his name.
"To me, all those things look like cover up. This is the age of open communication. Tinubu can talk directly to Nigerians from anywhere in the world, especially during this Sallah period as a Muslim. President Buhari was at the Holy Land for the Lesser Hajj a few days ago, everybody saw him and what he was doing. Jagaban (Bola Tinubu) is not that kind of person anybody should hide from his people. We are his people. He belongs to all Nigerians. He is a public property, so to speak. Even if anything is going wrong with him healthwise, he's a human being, he needs our sympathy and felicitations. We are in a crucial period that requires his presence in the country. He is a public person and we are entitled to know his whereabout except in some necessary confidential situations, if there is anything like that. Tinubu has rested enough, he should return to the country and continue whatever he is doing over there, except he is not in good health condition".
Already, ahead of May 29, a list of 13 names of Nigerians that would make up the Presidential Inauguration Committee that will usher a new administration has been submitted. This list was criticised by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the non-inclusion of anybody from the South-East Zone. The composition of the list has further stoked fears in some quarters that the much touted need for national reconciliation and healing of wounds may not easily be achieved if the next government is not deliberate about it.
The submission of the 13 names was in response to a letter by the Presidential Transition Committee (PTC), headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, asking for nominations into the 13 sub-committees under the Inauguration Committee of the council. (Additional reports from Thisday and Premium Times). NNL.
