Perhaps if they had gotten their acts together, Nigeria’s official opposition, made up of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), the Labour Party(LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party(NNPP), would have been in government and in power. But probably beset and afflicted by a tragic flow, they were sundered. With their votes totaling 14, 582,540 against the incumbent’s (All Progressives Congress’s) 8,794,726, they would have secured a formidable victory and they would have bestrode the Nigerian political firmament like some colossi.
Riven by personal ambition and differences in methodology and strategy, the opposition was not destined to govern. Consequently, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has hankered after presidential power for some three decades, and who in the heat of the jockeying for the ultimate prize, reminded his traducers that it was his turn, carried the day.
His turn, it has come to be, all thanks to his declaration as the winner of the presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), having secured the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election and having met the constitutional requirements for national spread. It was his turn, all thanks to the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Court(PEPC) which dismissed Atiku’s and Obi’s petitions for lack of merit. And it was his turn, all thanks to the affirmation of the earlier ruling of the PEPC by the Supreme Court.
In spite of the sundry flaws of the Presidential election, and in spite of the feisty controversies which it inspired, it is instructive that both former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Governor Peter Obi found recourse in due process and in our courts. As true democrats and persons who had benefited from the judicial system, they resorted to the courts with their grievances instead of venting them in the streets. They took the high and narrow path. And by so doing, they set edifying examples. Smaller minds would have instigated their starry-eyed followers. And deaths and mayhem would have ensued.
If the presidential election was not deeply flawed, and if it had followed the high-minded trajectories of 2011 and 2015, perhaps the controversy or the resort to court for adjudication would have been unnecessary and superfluous. Their respective followers and persons of goodwill would have prevailed on the candidates to defer to the majesty of the democratic process: they would have prevailed on them to concede defeat in the manner of President Goodluck in 2015. Even before the result of the 2015 presidential election had been officially declared by INEC, the returns were crystal clear. The All Progressives Congress(APC), then in opposition, was coasting to victory. Besides, the outcome of the election reflected, in the boldest relief, the intendment/ direction of the Nigerian people.
Alas, the runes and the omens were not so easy to read or fathom in 2023. One of the pillars on which the elections was erected, to wit: the upload, real time, of Polling Unit results on the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal(IReV), was bludgeoned. It was observed only in the breach.
In defeat, Atiku and Obi were spurred and galvanized by Churchillian instincts: they were gallant and they were defiant. Atiku added an additional quality: He was dogged in his quest to establish the shortcomings of the President’s bona fides and to put them in the public domain for all to behold.
By their defiance and their gallantry, the two have expanded the frontiers of our laws and the electoral process. They have also deepened our democracy. Until now, it was only evident and clear to Lawyers, politicians and those involved in the electoral process that: our laws, as they concern elections, are settled, etched in stone and predicated on precedent; to reverse an election in court, the appellant has to prove “substantial non-compliance with the law”; it is an uphill task to prove substantial non-compliance especially when the Election Management Body is joined in the case and the deck is stacked against the appellant; the appellant has to adduce evidence/evidences that are specific and not generic; a candidate must invest huge sums in hiring Polling Agents who would help him harvest such evidence in the event of litigation.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgement, there have been unfortunate attempts to gloat at the affirmation of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President by his groveling supporters. There have also been attempts to taunt Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi and to cast them in the mould of busybodies. This is petty.
Our democracy was given verve and effervescence because these gentlemen contested for the presidency. They not only expanded the democratic space, making the presidential election an unprecedented four-horse race, they provided more platforms for Nigerians to choose their leaders. Without their daring to contest in the first place, the exercise would have been anything but democratic. Though they were not ideologically different from Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, they represented certain tendencies and ideas which resonated with millions of Nigerians who, in turn, voted for them.
Just like Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, these gentlemen invested their time and resources in the elections. From the primaries to the campaigns and the elections proper, these candidates, with their numerous supporters, invested their resources and time. They helped, immeasurably, to mobilize Nigerians and to provide voter and political education beyond what a single party could have accomplished.
By investing time and resources, the opposition candidates added value to the process. They enlivened it. They invested it with panache. They demonstrated, from their exertions, that they were patriots and that they believed in the process. A gladiator who is dubious or doubtful of the process will seldom invest the kind of time and resources which they did.
Probably more significant is that the legal struggles of Atiku and Obi set the tone of the unusually forthright, but indicting valedictory speech of the retiring Supreme Court Justice, Musa Dattijo Muhammad. This valedictory speech, which catalogued some of the challenges of the Supreme Court and its overbearing leadership, was made possible by the environment created by the petitions of the two candidates. And the valedictory speech and the Supreme Court verdict have far reaching consequences for both judicial and electoral reforms.
It is worth noting and underscoring that in all their efforts to seek justice, Atiku and Obi did not resort to the SAMSON OPTION: They strained themselves not to bring down the Nigerian roof with them. They proved that they were not anarchists.
It is against this backdrop that, rather than see Atiku and Obi as some rabble rousers or agents provocateurs, we should view them loftily as worthy adversaries and patriots. Without their concerted, vigorous and undaunted efforts, the cause of democracy would not have been muscularly served. As the British statesman, Winston Churchill once admonished, “In War, Resolution; In Defeat, Defiance; In Victory, Magnanimity; and in Peace, GoodWill”. In defeat, Atiku and Obi were defiant.
Where is the magnanimity and statesmanship of President Tinubu’s handlers?