Atiku May Be Declared President, As Ghost of 2019 Election Resurrects

By James Orji

Atiku Abubakar’s 2023 Presidential  bid has suffered a hit recently but the former vice president  could get lucky if the events playing out at the Court of Appeal in Abuja is anything to rely on. Last week,  the court fixed the judgment for a suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of the Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance, CSOCLC, a civil sociery body, CSOs seeking to remove President Muhmmadu Buhari as President  and  Commander -in-Chief of the Armed Forces, for May 18 this year. The CSO is asking the court  to upturn the  victory of President Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.

The body is claiming that the school certificates presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission,  INEC for the election were not in order.

The former vice president has lost his quest to upturn Buhari’s  victory as the highest court in the country,  the Supreme Court has affirmed the incumbent as the winner of the election. But close watchers of events in the country insist that, Atiku whose presidential ambition  in 2023 has not gained so much popularity  due to his age, now has a chance to become president due to the ongoing case.

The question is whether the Court of Appeal would cancel President Buhari’s victory.

The incorporated Trustees of the Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance, CSOCLC had after the 2019 electio filed an appeal seeking the sacking of Buhari for alleged false affidavit in the 2019 general elections. In his stead, the organisation  said Atiku, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP should be declared president as the presidential candidate with the second highest number of votes.

The CSO, claimed in the suit that “ all his (Buhari) academic qualification documents as filled in his Presidential Form, President APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary, Military Board as at the time of the affidavit is false.”

The civil rights body also said, “there was no any organ, institution, agency, department or authority known as and called the ‘Military Board’ existing in the Federal Republic of Nigeria as at the 24th day of November 2014, when the 3rd defendant, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR deposed to an affidavit sworn to at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.”

The CSO is asking the court to order the Independent  National Electoral Electoral, INEC “to issue a new certificate of return in respect of the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), being the candidate who came second in the 2019 general elections to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

But the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and President  Buhari had in their response to the suit,  asked the Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeal seeking to nullify his election and swear in Atiku in his place.

Their argument is that the apex court has already settled the matter in favour of President  Buhari.

Even though many insists that the chance of Atiku being declared president by the court is very slim, they also noted that nothing is impossible since the Court of Appeal will decide the matter based on the facts of the case and in line with the constitution.

“The heaven will not fall if the highest court in the country nullifies Buhari’s  election. It will only show that the judiciary is unbias and is ready to protect the nation’s  hard earned democracy. If that happens it will only send a signal to politicians that something built on nothing cannot stand, and the court as the bastion of the Constitution will not validate illegality,” Muyi Joseph, a public analyst in Lagos told the magazine on Monday.

If Atiku is declared president it will serve as an impetus for his presidential  ambition which has recently suffered a hit after some political enthisiasts said he’s too old to be president of the country. The former vice president  is above 70 and the feeling in the county is that politicians in the age category should step down from the race to allow young people take over.

Indeed, the presidential  bid of Atiku has also suffered a hit following the decision of some of his supporters to abandon him. Recently, a former aide and former commissioner of information  in Edo State,  Hakeem Afegbua told Atiku to shelve his presidential quest because the office is not his personal property. Afegbua  who was the spokesmen of Atiku Presidential  Campaign in 2019 said the former vice president  has become a serial contestant. He should give room for fresh candidates, Afegbua a member of the PDP said.

Apart from this, analyst contend that PDP governors are not in support of Atiku’s presidential ambition. Governor Bala Mohammed  of Bauchi State, a close ally of Atiku recently told the former vice president  to stand down from the race due to age factor.

The situation has even become very precarious for Atiku considering that the mood in the country is that the presidency should be zoned to the south based on the unwritten zonal arrangement  for the country’s highest office.