The proposed swearing-in of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as President of Nigeria, on May 29 2023 will be tantamount to an enthronement of tragedy in Nigeria.
This view was expressed by a Conflict Resolution expert, Comrade Igbotako Nowinta in statement he issued to journalists in Benin City, Edo State capital at the weekend.
Nowinta said his view was based on the fact that Tinubu failed the constitutional requirements of 25% which he could not achieve clearly during the February 25, 2023 Presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) Abuja.
Comrade Igbotako Nowinta, who is also a frontline human rights activist, regretted that agents of pandemonium at the highest levels of government in Nigeria, are using the Nigerian judiciary to smash some key constitutional provisions regarding how the next president of Nigeria should emerge.
According to the full text of the press release:
“According to Section 134 ( 2) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended, l quote as follows:
(1) A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected, where, there being only two candidates for the election –
(a) he has the majority of votes cast at the election; and
(b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
(2) A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election. (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and
(b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“Some law abiding residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, approached the Court of competent jurisdiction few days ago, to seek transparent interpretation of the above sections of our constitution.
“But what is playing out sadly is that agents of pandemonium at the highest levels of government in Nigeria, are using the judiciary, to smash our constitutional provisions in this regard; by refusing to sit for the matter on May 26th, 2023, after promising the litigants to do so twice.
“In disappointing these peaceful litigants, this glaring discrepancy raises obvious and ugly questions. The All Progressives Congress is evading constitutional accountability that would have perfectly doomed other politicians in civilized democracies in the world.
“Now it is becoming a norm that to steal elections is to be a hero; those who spilled so much blood and committed all sorts of atrocities in defense of electoral malfeasance, along with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a result of the last presidential elections, are now champions of democracy. Today, they carry glaringly the beacon that led down the path of theft and treachery.
“To swear in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s next president on May 29th, 2023, will be tantamount to an enthronement of tragedy, because the judicial will be adding another dubious distinction to its norm breaking record by by-passing the constitutional provision in section 134 (2) of the 1999 Constitution.
“Our country is reeling under autocratic politicians who relish obliterating checks on their own desperate passion for power. Our economy is in ruins; our country men are in great peril. What a tragedy that the judiciary in Nigeria is eroding our country’s constitutional checks and balances.
“The fact of the matter is that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a poster face of a beleaguered, laughable and slipping country, and we as a people should not allow ourselves to be cowered by the enemies of Nigeria. We must continue to resist the creeping insanity playing out in our country. We shall overcome!
