I have no problem with decision of Atiku and his party to contest result of the presidential election in court; it is a fundamental right which they cannot be denied. Each of the times President Buhari ‘ lost’ elections in the past, he went to court in an attempt to legally reclaim his mandates.
I also do not have any problem with the decision of Atiku to abort his earlier plan of heating up the country by instigating the masses to be on the street and opt for the acceptable electoral litigation process. We all must first give him thumbs-up, and a big thank you to all who prevailed on him to take the path of peace and law.
My problem with Atiku, his party and all their think-tank is that they refused to learn from their mistakes. An African adage says ‘you don’t fall into the same pit twice’ but Atiku and his party have fallen severally into the same error and from all indications, would still be heading a lot more times into it.
The little popularity and acceptance of Atiku before the elections took a downward trend the moment Atiku ratified the use of cooked propagandas and fabricated lies as the major tools of his presidential campaign. After the major blow of the burden of corruption on his personality within the country and abroad, coupled with the destructive revelation of the person of Atiku by former president Obasanjo, it is rationally expected that his campaign directorates will be more preoccupied with image reconstruction strategies rather than the unholy, unfounded and less dignified attacks on the President Buhari .
PDP employing the tactics of the likes of Fani Kayode, Fayose, Omokiri, Adeyanju among others who believe in campaign of calumny, false propagandas, disrespect to elders and sentiments to sway voters’ loyalty towards their principal was perhaps the greatest undoing of PDP in the build-up to 2019 presidential election. That failed in 2015 and also failed woefully in 2019. When Nigerians woke up to the fabricated news of Buhari’s family ownership of 9-mobile and Keystone Bank, many of us wondered what benefit PDP expect to accumulate from spreading such a lie that was bound to be short-lived.
But as soon as the effect of the first lie waned, the Amina Zakari saga commenced. A woman who rose through the ranks on merit mostly during the PDP era suddenly was tagged by Atiku and PDP as Buhari cousin and an APC mole within INEC. While most Nigerians knew PDP was only building sentiments to discredit the candidature of President Buhari, some victims bought the lie among the target group.
Before the presidential elections, Atiku was bold to the effrontery of calling a press conference and lie to all Nigerians home and abroad about some youths and election manipulating devices belonging to APC which they (the PDP) had intercepted. Atiku had claimed that APC sent them to China to perfect the use of the devices that will be used to control the card reader machines.
All these allegations and many more, each without any credible evidence all fizzled out within days but not without all well-meaning Nigerians who prioritized trust and integrity as the main attributes of a leader. This led to the conclusion that Atiku was not an option for the Nigerian presidency.
We had also expected the PDP and Atiku to, after the indisputable loss, become more preoccupied with re-strategizing; looking inward to identify their shortcomings not only in 2019 but also in 2015 and work to possibly reposition the party for future elections. Unfortunately, they allowed themselves to engage more in acts capable of further diminishing their image and of course that of their party.
PDP has done many wrongs after the elections but let’s pick on only two of their misdoings. Having being in power for 16 years, PDP knows very well and are very conversant with the history of inconclusive elections as captured by the electoral act as well as other relevant statute. They have details of many times they had benefited from declaration of elections inconclusive but now they wish there is nothing like that and INEC would act unilaterally to declare them winners of elections they have not won legally.
So when Atiku and PDP came out crucifying INEC as acting the script of the APC led presidency, one tends to wonder how they expect Nigerians to respond. No matter how rich or eloquent you may be, people will naturally ignore you the moment you are tagged a liar and deceiver. For the benefit of those who seem not to be abreast of the antecedents of inconclusive elections in Nigeria, this piece will suffice.
I have a problem with the Atiku’s complaint about the presidential election and the that of the PDP itself, despite having all their counsel was still sloppy enough to mistake the addresses of the second and third respondents at the bottom of the petition. This is indicative of the point that they either are after his money or did not take their time to scrutinize the document because they already know it would lead to no good.
Another problem I harbour with Atiku and his cohorts in the PDP is that they had earlier claimed that the INEC had denied them access to election materials which they intend to obtain evidence from only to come up some days later with parallel result purportedly from INEC server. This parallel results reveals that Atiku of the PDP had won the February 23, 2019 presidential elections with a margin of about 1.6 million votes.
To be continued….
May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
