and Cross Udo
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 election, Peter Obi, and the Presidency yesterday disagreed over the Supreme Court judgement which affirmed President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the election.
While Obi said the judgement was a breach of Nigerians’ trust in the judiciary arm, the Presidency told the LP candidate that no court in the country gives judgement based on public opinion.
Speaking during a press conference at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja while responding to the Supreme Court verdict, Obi, who thanked Nigerians for their support in the last election, reiterated that the journey has just begun.
He said, “Nigerians who supported our cause have done so out of patriotism and their sincere conviction that our nation requires and deserves dedicated and visionary leaders who will lead Nigeria toward a brighter future. The energy and dedication of Nigerian youths and the Obedient Movement have been simply amazing.”
The former Anambra State governor added, “I appreciate and salute them! I want to assure them that this is not the end of our journey; but in fact, the beginning.
“Nigeria heard you. The world has taken note and will not forget so easily. We shall endure, and persist until we get to our destination because a new Nigeria is our destination. A destination, not an event.”
Signalling his readiness to run for the office of the president in 2023, Obi said, “As someone who has previously benefited from the rulings of the Supreme Court on electoral matters, I have, after a period of deep and sober reflection, decided to personally and formally react to the recent judgment as most Nigerians have.
“Because we are confronted with very weighty issues of national interest, I will speak forthrightly. As a student at CKC, Onitsha, we were taught values and admonished to always; ‘choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong’.
“Setting legal issues aside, the Supreme Court exhibited a disturbing aversion to public opinion, just as it abandoned its responsibility as a court of law and policy. It is, therefore, with great dismay that I observe that the court’s decision contradicts the overwhelming evidence of election rigging, false claim of a technical glitch, substantial non-compliance with rules set by INEC itself, as well as matters of perjury, identity theft, and forgery that have been brought to light in the course of this election matter. These were hefty allegations that should not be treated with levity.
Read Also:Governor Soludo loses father
“More appalling, the Supreme Court judgment willfully condoned breaches of the Constitution relative to established qualifications and parameters for candidates in presidential elections. With this counter-intuitive judgment, the Supreme Court has transferred a heavy moral burden from the courtrooms to our national conscience. Our young democracy is ultimately the main victim and casualty of the courtroom drama.
“Without equivocation, this judgment amounts to a total breach of the confidence the Nigerian people have in our judiciary. To that extent, it is a show of unreasonable force against the very Nigerian people from whom the power of the Constitution derives.
“This Supreme Court ruling may represent the state of the law in 2023, but not the present demand for substantive justice. The judgment mixed principles and precepts. Indeed, the rationale and premise of the Supreme Court judgment have become clearer in the light of the deep revealing and troubling valedictory remarks by Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad (JSC), on Friday 27th October 2023,” Obi said during the press conference.
In disagreeing with the rulings of both PEPC and the Supreme Court on the outcome of the February 25, 2023, presidential election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Obi said as democrats who believe in the rule of law, they recognised that the Supreme Court is the end stage of the quest for legal closure to the matter.
“As a party and as candidates, Datti and I have now exhausted all legal and constitutional remedies available to us. However, this end is only another beginning in our quest for the vindication of the hope of the common man for a better country. After all, sovereignty belongs to the people! If only for historical purposes, it behoves us to place our disagreement with and deep reservations about this judgment on public record.
“We have long been aware of how weak national institutions have negatively affected our democracy. This year 2023 has been quite remarkable and revealing. INEC has displayed incompetence in the conduct of its statutory duty. The judiciary has largely acted in defiance of constitutional tenets, precedents, and established ground rules.
“Political expediency has preceded judicial responsibility. A mechanical application of technicalities has superseded the pursuit of justice and fairness. Both INEC and the Supreme Court as the referees, respectively shifted the goalposts in the middle of the game.”
•No court gives ruling based on public opinion, Presidency replies
Meanwhile, the Presidency last night told Obi that no court in the country gives judgement based on public opinion.
The Presidency also said that having admitted that the Supreme Court ruling brought an end to litigation and any challenge to the victory of President Bola Tinubu, Obi should have congratulated the President and pledged his support in the spirit of statesmanship.
Reacting to the LP’s presidential candidate press conference yesterday, the Presidency in a statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said it welcomed the pledge by Obi and his party to play the role of the opposition and urged him to start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027.
The statement titled: Peter Obi should find better vocation instead of casting aspersions on the judiciary, read, “Labour Party presidential candidate in the last election, Mr Peter Obi, addressed a press conference, just like Atiku Abubakar, where he cast aspersions on the Supreme Court and the Independent National Electoral Commission for not declaring him the winner of the February 25, 2023 election.
“We are at a loss as to how the copy-cat Obi and his faction of Labour Party convinced themselves they won an election in which they came a distant third.
“The grand delusion that made Mr Obi believe he could have won a national election where he ran the most hateful, divisive, and polarising campaign that pitched Christians against Muslims and one ethnic group against the other in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria should be a matter for deeper examination.
“At the press conference where he tried, in vain, to gaslight Nigerians with false claims and innuendos, Mr Obi contradicted himself. There was a beneficiary of judicial pronouncements in the past now castigating the same court because its judgement did not go his way.
“Mr Obi claimed the Supreme Court justices didn’t consider public opinion in delivering what has been applauded as a most profound judgement in an election appeal where the Labour Party candidate presented the most watery and unreasonable petition before any court in the history of electoral cases in Nigeria.
“He made false allegations of rigging and other electoral malpractices yet could not produce any evidence to back up his claims at both the court of first instance and at the apex court. In a failed effort to mobilise and retain the support of his supporters, Obi gave them a forlorn hope that he won the election and would prove it before the courts.
“Throughout the trial, his lawyers didn’t present any alternative results different from the results INEC uploaded on the IReV portal and the ones signed by all party agents from the 176,000 polling units.
“We wonder how the Labour Party candidate expected the courts to do justice based on rumours, lies, and false narratives by sponsored partisans and fanatical members of his Obidient Movement.
“We expected the Labour Party candidate to know that the Supreme Court or any other court does not give judgment based on public opinion and mob sentiments. Judicial pronouncements are based on evidence, precedents, and the rule of law.
“Having admitted that the Supreme Court ruling brought an end to litigation and any challenge to the bonafide of President Bola Tinubu as the validly elected leader of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Obi should have congratulated President Tinubu for his victory and pledged his support, in the spirit of statesmanship.
“But instead, he brought up extraneous matters that he thought the apex court should have considered to declare him the winner. In our view, the drowning Obi, just like Atiku, was merely attempting to hold on to a straw in raking up new allegations, which exist only in his imagination and that of his hordes of supporters.”
Continuing, the Presidency said, “Our admonition to Mr Peter Obi is to find another worthwhile vocation to engage his time henceforth, having been rejected by the majority of Nigerians who didn’t consider him qualified to lead our country.
“Nigerians rejected Peter Obi and his demagoguery at the poll because he posed a present and future danger to the peace, progress, and stability of our country.
“Obi’s antecedents as Governor of Anambra for eight years didn’t inspire any confidence as someone capable of running a country like Nigeria. No tangible records of achievement in the state he governed recommended him for the Presidency of Nigeria.
“If Mr Peter Obi truly believes in Nigeria, the time to prove it is now when all men and women of goodwill are rallying support for President Tinubu in his determination to lead a new era of prosperity, inclusive governance, and economic growth in Nigeria.
“Finally, we welcome Obi and his party to play the role of the opposition and start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027. We hope by then he would campaign on issues and not whip up religious and ethnic sentiments as he did in the last campaign.”
