Atiku accuses S’Court of rewarding crime, forgery, identity theft; proposes ways to improve democracy

Atiku accuses S’Court of rewarding crime, forgery, identity theft; proposes ways to improve democracy

Former Nigerian vice president and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023, presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the Supreme Court’s judgment that declared President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25th, 2023, presidential election.

Addressing Nigerians at a press briefing on Monday in Abuja, Atiku accused the Supreme Court and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of supporting illegality, identity theft, impersonation, forgery of certificates and perjury.

He insisted that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, was not qualified to contest the February 2023 presidential poll.

“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.

During the press conference monitored by Neptune Prime, Atiku Abubakar said Nigeria’s democratic process can be improved when electronic voting and collation of results are made mandatory, all legal disputes should be resolved before the inauguration of a winner, and a candidate must win the majority of the votes i.e 51%, failing which a run-off should be conducted between the top two contenders.

“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 the 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 has been sworn into office.

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“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,” Atiku said.

Following the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election by INEC, Atiku and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi challenged the victory of Tinubu in the apex court.

In September, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) uploads Tinubu’s victory, not satisfied with the verdict, Atiku and Obi approached the Supreme Court seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s election on the grounds of double nomination, alleged certificate forgery, non-transmission of results electronically, 25% votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), amongst others.

However, last Thursday, Justice John Okoro-led panel of the Supreme Court threw out all the appeals by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi for lacking merit. The panel thereafter affirmed Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president.