By Paschal Oluchukwu
That Alhaji Atiku Abubakar- the People’s Democratic Party, PDP candidate in the 2023 Presidential election took his battle to get to the root of ascertaining the authenticity or otherwise of the academic credentials submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC by the APC candidate and now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in far away United States of America and with his personal, hard-earned resources indeed proves his stoic mettle as a determined democrat whose credentials speak further volumes.
It would be recalled that after several months and weeks of dilly-dallying, the Chigaco State University, where Tinubu claimed to have issued him a Diploma in Business and Administration which he presented was compelled by a Judge, Nancy Maldonado through an order to release Tinubu’s academic records in it’s possession to Atiku within just 48 hours.
Tinubu And Atiku
According to her, “In the reasons stated in this Memorandum Opinion and Order, the Court overrules President Tinubu’s objections and adopts Judge Gilbert’s recommended decision in full,” the court said.
It said, “The Court therefore grants Mr. Abubakar’s application under 28 U.S.C 1782. CSU is directed to respond to Mr. Abubakar’s subpoena in the time and manner provided for below…”
Consequently, it was a huge relief for many right-thinking Nigerians when the CSU Registrar, Caleb Westberg appeared under oath and indeed responded to questions from Atiku’s lawyers on the authenticity or otherwise of the certificate Tinubu submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body as having been issued by the said institution he claimed to have graduated in 1979. Although the institution’s Registrar performed in a rather trickish and shoddy manner in it’s response to enquiries under dock especially knowing that the fate of over 200 Million Nigerians home and abroad lied on his simple honesty to enable them unravel their number one citizen who’s entire records have been shrouded in so much secrecy and mystery, and also for the sake of the pendency of the 2023 election litigation before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the take home was yet the fact that the Registrar, under oath denied the claim that the institution issued Tinubu with the certificate it presented to INEC.
Mr Paschal Oluchukwu
Now armed with such credible exhibits as evidences, Atiku returned to file them before the apex Court, not out of desperation for power but to help Nigerians unravel the over three decades mystery behind Tinubu’s certificate. Even though the ball is now in the court of the apex Court in the land to determine, rational thinking and democracy-loving Nigerians must respect and commend Atiku Abubakar for standing tall in this epic battle and more particularly for being an outstanding collective conscience of Nigeria’s fledgling democracy.
Like he noted during his recent Press Conference that, “I am a democrat by conviction and a citizen of a country that I love. The issues at stake in this case require us once more to re-dedicate ourselves to both the country and our constitution…”, Atiku has indeed proven himself a true democrat who believes firmly in justice, honesty, integrity and the rule of law.
This was further demonstrated by his disposition as clearly stated during the said Press Conference; “Now, we entrust these facts to us all as citizens and as leaders of the institutions charged with interpreting our constitution.” Indeed he proved that it is not about him but about us all as a people, our democracy and the rule of law as further enunciated in the text of his briefing; “Political leadership and active citizenship matter because they are ways through which we all work together to build a country that works for all who live in it. Our country is bigger than any of us, and its standing in the world affects the fate of all who come from or live in it. As leaders, it is our duty to advance the well-being of all our people and of the country.”
Whatever eventually happens at the apex Court of our land even as Atiku clearly stated that he would abide by their decision on the matter, the fact remains that the Waziri of Adamawa as he is popularly hailed by his numerous admirers has once again stepped into the arena to rescue, redeem and or deepen our democracy which ordinarily should be founded on justice and the rule of law.
Like he did to Obasanjo’s vaulting third term ambition, Atiku has again demonstrated that democracy is about the overall interests of the entire populace and what is right, just and honest and not about any single individual masquerading as a leader.
THE MAKING OF THE MAN, ATIKU ABUBAKAR AND HIS MANY ANTI-DEMOCRACY BATTLES
According to the book; Atiku: The true story of Atiku Abubakar, authored by Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba, the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua had told Atiku:
“Look, you are good, you relate well with people. I think you will make a good politician. Why don’t you join me in politics?”,
Since 1988 when the Late Musa Yar’ Adua convinced Atiku to join politics, not many may be aware of the numerous political battles he has fought and won and the political rivers the former Customs Officer has equally crossed. Atiku was an integral part of the Late Shehu Yar’Adua’s political movement which eventually transmuted into the People’s Front of Nigeria, (PF) which had “the pursuit of justice, peace and service” as it’s motto and “People First” as it’s slogan. It bothers reminiscing that Atiku as a big spender in politics does not believe in keeping money idle. It has to be used to make money or to advance a good cause. This clearly brings to mind his recent personal and selfless undertaking to get to the root of probing Tinubu’s academic qualifications in far away Chicago.
No doubt therefore that Atiku had influence within the then new Party and his personal qualities of good human relationship attracted many to him and he thus became a rallying point within the Party. Even when he alongside the other members of the Yar’Adua group, Atiku decided to join the Social Democratic Party, SDP, he continued and sustained his utmost goodwill. It is on record that he not only brought SDP to his then Gongola State but personally funded and sustained the Party.
From his quest to be Governor of Adamawa State and his actual emergence upon the return of democracy in 1999 as the Vice President of Nigeria in 1999, Atiku has remained consistently consistent with his principles and values as a true democrat. These reasons made him stick his neck tall to fight the attempt by his boss, then President Olusegun Obasanjo to alter the constitution and contest for the highest office in the land for the third term.
During a strategic engagement meeting with the National Assembly members in Abuja in his campaign for the 2023 Presidential election,Atiku had revealed that it was his intimate relationship with the National Assembly members in 2003-2007 that gave him success in truncating the third term ambition of Obasanjo. “During my tenure as vice-president, I developed a very intimate relationship with members of the National Assembly and it was that relationship that enabled us to stop the third-term or the life Presidency attempt by President Obasanjo”, he disclosed.
ALL EYES NOW ON THE APEX COURT IN THE LAND…..
With the welter of public discussions now trailing the Tinubu certificate saga both locally and globally, this must be a very defining moment in our nation’s history. The facts as they say in Law simply speak for itself (Res ipsa loquitur). Will the apex Court rely on the facts of the law or on technicalities as has traditionally become the morning order of the day in most of our Nigerian Courts?
There’s no gainsaying the fact that the multiple exhibits tendered before the Supreme Court by Atiku are so instrumental to the determination of the issues formulated by parties at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal that failure to admit and use them in their decisions could spell doom and make a further mockery of the Nigerian justice system.
Whereas, all the answers to the posers and fears are in the womb of time, it is significant that I draw the attention of their Lordships at the apex Court to the wise words of Aquinas, otherwise referred to as the corruption of law as quoted in Raymond Wack’s Philosophy of Law, ” A government that abuses it’s authority by enacting laws which are unjust (unreasonable or against the common good) forfeits it’s right to be obeyed because it lacks moral authority. His older contemporary, Hugo de Groot, popularly called Hugo de Groot (1583-1645) in his influential work, De Jure Belli ac Pacis, insists that, “even if God did not exist, natural law would have the same content. This meant presumably in Grotius’s wisdom that certain things were ‘intrinsically wrong’- whether or not God decrees them; for, to use Grotius’s own analogy, even God cannot cause two times two not to equal four!”.
In conclusion therefore, it would be a very patriotic duty, just like Atiku had done in his pursuit of facts and truth in the very contentious issue of Tinubu’s certificate saga to allow truth, justice and honest to prevail. For that is only what is capable of birthing a new Nigeria and a democracy anchored on strong institutions with distinct separation of powers in which the citizens can indeed bank on the judiciary as the last hope of the common man!
Paschal Oluchukwu, a Public Affairs Commentator, wrote from Abuja, Nigeria.
