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Tag: atiku

  • Busted: Atiku signed 1973 ‘Sadiq’ WAEC affidavit in court on a Saturday

    Busted: Atiku signed 1973 ‘Sadiq’ WAEC affidavit in court on a Saturday

    August 18, 1973, the date Vice President Atiku Abubakar claimed to have signed an affidavit in court claiming to be the same person as Sadiq Abubakar has turned out to be a Saturday.

    From time immemorial, courts in Nigeria do not open for business on Saturdays and Sundays, being work-free days in the country.

    In the said affidavit, Atiku had sworn to an oath that he sat for the West African School Certificate Examination (WAEC) in 1965 as Sadiq Abubakar but that he later changed his name to Atiku Abubakar.

    Read Also: Why my SSCE certificate bears Sadiq Abubakar – Atiku

    The revelation may have confirmed accusations that the said Sadiq Abubakar might be an entirely different person from Atiku Abubakar.

    Atiku had, in a public statement on Sunday, October 10, 2023, insisted that he was the same person as Sadiq Abubakar who sat for WAEC in 1965.

    Atiku’s Media Adviser, Mr Paul Ibe in a statement, said among others, that: “It is on record that the change of name of the former Vice President reverting to Atiku Abubakar from Siddiq Abubakar is well documented in an affidavit dated 18th of August 1973, spanning over a period of 50 years.”

  • Atiku and Obi: certificate miracles

    Atiku and Obi: certificate miracles

    Peter G. Obi gave a press conference to ape his former master Atiku, asking about President Tinubu’s identity. But now, he has to face his own chi as a party spokesman is invoking his dead brother and a dud name. so, who is Peter Obi? The question is thrown back at him. Is he impersonating his brother, as the LP man asks, because of what is the discrepancy in the names on his NYSC and Degree certificates. It may mean nothing or everything, but this is what happens when one wants to be a purist in order to harm others. But how is it that Obi had to be an undergraduate before he qualified to get WAEC?  Same to Atiku, who had a master’s degree without a first. Both are miracle men. We don’t know what to call him. Jokoli, Sadiq or Sidiq. Even if he changed his name, we need proof. He went to Chicago to seek proof. We want one here. As lawyers say, he who comes to equity must come with clean hands, and clean names.

  • Certificate conundrums for Atiku, Obi

    Certificate conundrums for Atiku, Obi

    Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, was admittedly reluctant to make an issue out of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate imbroglio. Perhaps he knew he was living in a glass house, and was loth to throw stone. But eventually he overcame his phobia, and last Wednesday heartily threw stones. He probably realised that if he didn’t throw anything in consonance with former vice president Atiku Abubakar’s solicitation five days earlier, the former vice president’s APC enemies would still associate him with the saga and hurl a few missiles in his direction anyway. But the first person to throw stones and make it a great and fearsome issue was Alhaji Atiku himself, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He travelled to the United States, filed a suit in a US court to compel the president’s alma mater to release his academic records, and was determined to file it before the Nigerian Supreme Court

    Alhaji Atiku was successful in his US expedition, even though the records released to him are of doubtful legal utility. Mr Obi was largely a bystander in all this until he plunged into the murky certificate waters and began to muckrake. While the expedition lasted, and notwithstanding the tenuousness of the president’s records that revealed little, both Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi did not imagine that the table could easily turn against them. The problem, they now know, is that they both live in glass houses. Detractors have established, and are pressing the matter, that Alhaji Atiku had changed his name twice with repect to his certificates for apparently no substantial reasons, and both the chronology of his academic credentials as well as their integrity are now being called into question. His master’s degree, critics say, has no real predicative legs to stand upon, and with the exception of his college certificate, all his other certificates lack rhyme and reason.

    Read Also: Certificate saga: When Atiku’s ambition begets malice

    For the initially reticent Mr Obi, the situation is much worse. There are issues with the names on his certificates, which are all muddled up; and there are also issues with the chronology of those certificates, with one of them, the school certificate, procured after his philosophy degree. Critics were also dismayed and puzzled to discover that he tendered nothing beyond his school certificate to Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, though he claimed to possess a university degree. What was he hiding? they queried. Both Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi are now on the defensive, and will find it hard to extricate themselves.

    What is even much worse, indeed infinitely appalling, is that both presidential candidates had uninspiring school certificates which expose them to be below average students, unfit to cope with the intellectual rigours of high office in a complex and modernising world. Their school certificate results showed them just a little bit above dullards. No wonder their pontifications during the presidential campaigns were jejune and trivial. It is good they made the president’s certificates an issue, for there was no other way their own dismal and contradictory academic records would have been exposed.

  • Certificate saga: When Atiku’s ambition begets malice

    Certificate saga: When Atiku’s ambition begets malice

    • By Jimoh Olorede

    Nigerian child born thirty years ago (1993) who, by now, might be a father or mother, knows that the ‘Self-actualization Priority Need’ of the former Vice President, and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, is utmost attainment of the Nigeria’s presidency seat. There’s no gainsaying in this given the fact that Atiku Abubakar has since 1993 been eyeing the topmost political seat of Nigeria’s presidency, when he contested presidential primaries in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and lost to Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe.

    Serially, in 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023, he contested on the platform of Action Congress (AC) and lost to Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007; he came to PDP, contested presidential primaries and lost to the then-incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011; he defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, contested presidential primaries and lost to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015; he returned to the PDP in 2017, contested the 2019 presidential election and lost to the immediate-past President, Muhammadu Buhari; and in 2023 presidential election, he, as usual, contested against Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC and lost. What a political journey of an ambitious 76-year old man!

    Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is glaringly desirous and ambitious in attaining presidency. Of course, nothing is wrong or bad in this. In fact, it’s his constitutional right to pursue his presidential ambition, and any other genuine ambitions whatsoever.

    However, the way and manner Atiku goes about the pursuit of his ambition, by not only instituting a litigation, but also by his adversarial disposition, shows the former Vice President is not only ambitious but also malicious in his bid to wrestle power from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    In his malicious bid to harm the personality and dignity of his main opponent, Tinubu, Atiku has been on hater-recruitment mission since aftermath of the February 25, 2023 presidential election which brought Tinubu to power as duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    For instance, recently, during his October 5th World Press Conference, which he called and addressed in Abuja after the release of Tinubu’s academic records to him by the Chicago State University (CSU), Atiku said: “I am calling on all well-meaning Nigerians, leaders of thought, our religious leaders, our traditional leaders, our community leaders, our political leaders, and in particular, Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP and, the leaders of every political party in Nigeria, and, indeed, every single person who loves this country, as I do, and who wishes nothing but the best for the country, as I do, to join me in this campaign to enshrine probity, accountability and the basic principles of justice, morality and uprightness in our country and in our government”

    Read Also: Saint Atiku as moral exemplar? (1)

    Apart from recruiting haters to join his malicious mission, the former Vice President has also been mischievous in his self-interpretation of the Chicago State University (CSU) Registrar, Caleb Westberg’s deposition as well as the academic records released to him. Neither the CSU nor its Registrar said Tinubu forged his certificates. According to Westberg, the authenticity of a student’s academic records is in the academic transcript, and not necessarily the certificate which might be contracted to a third party for issuance.

    A recent report by the disinformation team of the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC) quoted the authority of Tinubu’s former school, CSU, as saying: “We are confident and always have been in the veracity and integrity of our records regarding Tinubu’s attendance and completion of graduation requirements.” So, with this authenticity declaration of Tinubu’s studentship and successful completion and graduation of same by his school, Atiku Abubakar’s allegation of forgery is clearly self-defined with a malicious intention, and of course, spurious.

    Asking the President to resign and vacate presidency on the basis of his certificate, which is a sole jurisdiction and determination of the Supreme Court, obviously flagrantly amounts to contempt of the highest court of the land, not only for preempting the decision of the apex court, but also by Atiku’s mischief in the application and usage of the academic documents released to him by the CSU, when he told the Illinois Court that he would use the discoveries in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court in Nigeria.

    But few days after the release of Tinubu’s academic records to him via his legal team, he called and addressed a World Press Conference in clear contempt of the highest court of the land. Also worrisome is the way some armchair lawyers in Nigeria are turning the media into a court of law and adjudicating the CSU matter on Televisions and newspapers. These supposed professionals, of course, do not need or expect an Engineer to tell them the implications of their action. 

    Alhaji Abubakar’s spin-doctors and media handlers should let him know that the way he pursues his self-actualization needs, as propounded by Abraham Maslow, exposes his power lust, which portrays him as maliciously ambitious and ambitiously malicious.

    • Dr. Olorede, a don and media scholar, wrote via oloredejimoh@gmail.com/08111841887.
  • Atiku: Desperation is your name

    Atiku: Desperation is your name

    First, let us enquire into this Breaking News of SADIQ ABUBAKAR and the circumstances which led to VP Atiku Abubakar’s change of name. Can we, with all due respect, ask the following questions:

    What names are on  his first school leaving certificate?

    Can he give Nigerians the school’s address so they can authenticate the veracity of this story? If this is no longer feasible, can he volunteer names of 5 persons who will be willing to swear on the Quoran or the Holy Bible, affirming  that they know him as Sadiq, or is it Sidiq?

    Or can he willingly produce the certificate or any other document which identifies him as Sidiq for Nigerians to see?

    We ask these questions because all the etymological effusions by  Phrank Shaibu, his Special Assistant on Public Communication, to spin off the circumstances of  the name change  simply do not clarify how this case is different from that of persons who either procure others to write examinations for them, or simply buy off certificates.

    And, by the way, can the respected former Vice President please react to this rumour going round that he has a brother named Sadiq? In fact a trending WhatsApp video carries the gentleman’s photo.

    I digress.

    The article you are about to read was first published a year ago on 23 October, 2022. By that date,  the Turakin Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar,  had shown enough indication that the 2023 Presidental election – I think his 6th attempt, and most probably his last (1993,2007,2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023 – woe betide marabouts) will be a do or die affair.

    It was for that reason he ended up selfishly splitting PDP into: Peter Obi and his Labour party,  Rabiu Kwankwaso and the NNPP, the ramp of PDP itself and the very robust group of 5 governors who resisted his selfish politics and flatly refused to have anything to do with his campaign.

    It was in this desperation that Atiku defeated himself and has since been beating about the bush, like Peter Obi, going all over the globe searching for his stolen mandate.

    Before we go into that, this other, rather, pathetic matter of the amputee, Sunday Fakunle.

    Last week, I called the attention of the Oyo state governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, to the parlous state of Mr Fakunle who is a below the knee amputee, and pleaded for his kind assistance for the gentle man.

    While we are still waiting for the governor, some Nigerians have risen to Alheri’s assistance by sending him money.

    It was never my intention to use this medium to raise funds for him. However, I urge you to please mentally picture a man whose leg is amputated below the knee trying to make ends meet in today’s Nigeria, and be  touched enough to assist him.  God in his infinite mercy will handsomely reward you.

    Below is his bank details.

    Sunday Fakunle

     A/c No.0 0 7 1 8 7 6 6 3 9  Access bank.

    I digress.   

    Read Also: Saint Atiku as moral exemplar? (1)

    Were General Musa Yar Adua to resurrect today, indicating he wanted to contest for the presidency of Nigeria, those who know his old protege, Atiku Abubakar, well enough, contend that the latter would also announce his interest in the same post. This is the spirit that has seen Atiku contesting for the presidency since the 90’s, and for him, everything goes.

    Let us briefly sketch his 30+ years on this journey. In doing that, let us respectfully,  press into service, his one-time boss, ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo as well as the inimitable journalist, Louis Odion.

    The contributions from these two  will show why nobody should have been surprised when Atiku said as follows before the Northern Elders who were interrogating his programmes ahead of the presidential election:”What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country”.”This is what the Northerner needs;  He/ she doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I stand before you as a Pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”

    That is the Atiku Abubakar some people are trying to sell to Nigerians as a unifier, even if his party, the PDP is in turmoil.

    Without a scintilla of doubt, and as will be confirmed by the following testimonies, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is being driven by an un-tameable desperation to be the Nigerian president but certainly not because he has anything tangible to offer a country in desperate need of rebuilding and re-engineering. Even as Vice -President, he was more concerned with upstaging his boss and becoming the President as he had been promised by marabouts who had earlier, uncannily, predicted his political trajectory. Ex-president Obasanjo had the following to say about his Vice: “… From the day I nominated Atiku to be my vice, he set his mind not for any good, benefit or service to the country, but on furiously planning to upstage, supplant or remove me at all cost and to take my place”. “That was what I brought him for, but he was impatient and over-ambitious. He was not ready to learn and to wait. His marabout, who predicted that despite being elected as governor, he would not be sworn in as a governor, which happened, also assured him that he would take over from me in a matter of months rather than years”. “All his plans, appointments of people and his actions were towards the actualisation of his marabout’s prediction. Once I realised his intention and programme, I watched him like a hawk without giving any indication of what I knew and letting down my guard. I could not succumb to the distraction, diversion and malevolence of an ambitious but unwise deputy”.

    If that was many years ago, let us hear Louis Odion as he describes Atiku’s Israelite’s journey towards the Nigerian presidency.

    In the article: Atiku: The Peril of inordinate ambition (The Nation, 16 October, ’22), he wrote inter alia:

    “ Atiku is a conflicted bigot, consumed by inordinate ambition. He remains a bare-foot slave to an empire the Nigeria of the twenty-first century has outgrown. In 2011, he battled Jonathan for PDP ticket, on the argument that the ‘North has not used up its two term slots’, following Yar’Adua’s death in office on May 5, 2010. (Forget that he stubbornly refused entreaties not to go to court when the same Umar Yar’Adua was declared winner in 2007 in the spirit of ‘northern solidarity’) and fought like a wounded lion up to  the Supreme Court).But he got a shellacking at the PDP primaries in 2011. In 2014, he, still driven by that inordinate ambition, again led the rebellion of nPDP to evacuate PDP in protest of Jonathan’s bid for 2nd (3rd?) term; that it was ‘the turn of power to shift to the North’, for the ‘sake of justice and equity’. In 2018, realising he stood no chance against President Buhari’s winning 2nd term in 2019, he migrated back to PDP.

    Of course, he suffered another shellacking in 2019. With the power of Dollars, and a thoughtless invocation of the ethnic card at PDP’s May primaries, he overpowered Southern contenders (like Wike) to the presidential ticket”.

    While Northern politicians like  the APC Northern governors, were more concerned with fairness , equity and the unity of Nigeria and so conceded the party’s presidential slot to the South, as Governor El Rufai of Kaduna state said Sir Ahmadu Bello and the Northern founding fathers would have wished, Atiku, in Odion’s words, “ sacrifised national unity, put a knife on the fragile thread that holds Nigeria together, in a desperation to rig the fulfilment of the long-standing prophecy by marabouts (according to ex-President Obasanjo) of ruling Nigeria some day”.

    But that is not all  for the man who ‘just must rule Nigeria’, come shine, come rain, as Nyesom Wike,  Governor of Rivers state, attests to Atiku’s unreliability.

    For instance, Wike said:” “Now, when we finished our convention, the candidate of the party came to see me in my house in Abuja on Monday, around 10:30am and said ‘Listen, I want us to work together.’ Ayu must go.’I said ‘why?’, and he said because when a candidate comes from the north, the chairman will come from the south. And I am saying, ‘implement what you told me’. There are many other instances of Atiku’s double dealing.

    Speaking at a meeting with PDP stakeholders from the South-East in Enugu on Tuesday, September 27, Atiku said he was interested in repositioning the region to play bigger roles in the country’s survival, noting that for his love for the region, he twice chose Igbos as his running mate; and has now, for the third time chosen another. Therefore, concluded the man trading the Nigerian presidency all over the place, “I make it quite clear and confidently, too: I will be your stepping stone to becoming president”.

    But before the cock could crow, listen to Atiku talking to an estranged Governor Nyesom Wike.

    Worried by the danger posed to his ambition in next year’s presidential election by the camp of the Rivers State governor, the PDP flag bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had to offer the governor the presidency, come 2027, on the condition, however, that Wike would  sheathe his sword and support him (Atiku) in the 2023 election.

    Quickly forgetting his promise to the Southeast, both men met on Thursday in Abuja in a fresh bid to patch up their differences, with Atiku promising to support Wike’s presidential bid in 2027 if he (Wike) agreed to  support him (Atiku) in the 2023 election.

    I do not think there is a better way to end this article than as Odion did when he wrote:”  This presidential ‘candidate of habit’ will soon find again that the Nigeria of his depraved, bigoted dream no longer exists”.

    If that was a year ago, Atiku’s desperation to become President, even after he had grandly lost the election and the Presidential Election Tribunal Court has dismissed his petition, has become far worse, making one wonder as to what would become of him when the Supreme court  finally knocks him out..

  • Atiku’s wild goose chase

    Atiku’s wild goose chase

    I deliberately refrained from commenting on the allegation by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu forged the certificate of the Chicago State University (CSU) in the United States of America that he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), until the deposition by the university, for obvious reasons. I could not have imagined that someone would go to the extent that Atiku went in search of what has now turned out to be so little.

    But the university has now spoken.

    As usual with such issue, all manner of ‘experts’ have hijacked the media space such that other voices have been drowned in the cacophony of ignorance.

    CSU spoke in simple English language that should have put paid to the now needless saga. Indeed, the 125-page  deposition by Mr Caleb Westberg, the university’s current registrar, speaks to Tinubu’s education at the university, his identity, and the certificate issued to him.

    For me, the questions are: did Tinubu attend CSU? Yes, he did. Did he graduate from there? Again, the answer is yes. Westberg confirmed that “He was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with Honors on June 22, 1979. His major was accounting.”

    Is Bola Ahmed Tinubu the same person as Bola A. Tinubu whose name is on the certificate in question? Again, given the response by Westberg, the university said it believes that both are one and the same person.

    Indeed, part of the reasons I was initially hesitant to comment on the matter was because, as a graduate, if I misplace my certificate, I would expect a replacement from the university where I graduated. But CSU says it is not in the habit of replacing such certificate, being a purely ceremonial matter. But vendors are permitted to replace such certificate.

    So, what is the ‘shock find’ here?

    He may not be able to admit it publicly, but I have cause to believe that what Atiku got from that university couldn’t have been the reason he spent what must have been a fortune to pursue.

    Indeed, something keeps telling me that Atiku knows he has reached a dead end in his quest to prove that Tinubu either did not attend CSU or, if he did, he never graduated there. But, having raised the  hopes of most of the usually gullible Nigerians, Atiku cannot afford to tell them he returned virtually empty-handed from the U.S.A. Hence, his pretensions to have gotten something weighty enough to present to the Supreme Court, to show that Tinubu committed forgery.

    Obviously, Atiku is fighting his last political battle. I don’t see him shining again as to clinch the second position that he got in the 2023 election in 2027. Indeed, for Atiku, it does not seem there would be any such opportunity in 2027. Not that I wish him dead; it is just that things happening in the political terrain make him an unlikely marketable material in any future election in the country.

    He would be about 80 by the time we are having the 2027 elections. This may not be enough reason to disqualify him, even if unofficially, though, because I have argued severally on this page that age may not be an issue in all circumstances. I won’t deviate from that position now because the issue is Atiku. The present American President, Joe Biden, is about 80 years. Meaning he was about 78 when he was sworn in on January 20, 2021. And, Jagunlabi (Biden) is looking forward to contesting next year’s election at 81. If he is able to make it, he would be sworn in as the 47th President of God’s own country in January 2025 when he would be over 82. His predecessor, Donald Trump, who wants to return to the White House to pick what he forgot there is not by any stretch of imagination young either.

    Read Also: Strip Atiku of national honours, CSOs tell Tinubu

     But Nigeria is not America. The many years of bad governance by largely those, in the Babangida years we referred to as ‘old breed’ politicians may make Atiku and people in his age bracket not to be in contention again. Nigerians would have been tired of them and would be routing for something different. Whether the something different would be refreshingly so is however in the womb of time. I have said it before that President Tinubu may be the last of that generation to rule Nigeria if he disappoints Nigerians.

    So, we can see why Atiku is so desperate not to allow this last opportunity, as it were, slip pass him. We can understand why he is running from pillar to post in search of the presidential seat. Atiku is running against time and no amount of counselling can convince him to retrace his steps.

    Let no one make no mistake about it. What Atiku is doing now is merely a continuation of the politics of the 2023 election by some other means; a thing they started long before the polls. And he is not alone in this. He is only the face of the anti-Tinubu cabal. All the shenanigans they brought into play; the cashless economy and all, which ensured that one candidate (or probably more than one candidate) got enough cash, naira and forex, to prosecute the election while effectively denying another major contender in that election, specifically Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the much-needed cash. At least so they thought. That Tinubu still won the election has remained a jigsaw puzzle to them, knowing full well the numerous landmines they put on his way.

    It is in the bid to cover up their dirty tracks that many of those involved in the illegalities that were perpetrated during the Muhammadu Buhari years decided to do all that was humanly possible to ensure Tinubu did not win the election. Now that all their evil plans had crashed like a pack of cards, they are afraid of their shadows. So, the war must continue at some other levels.

    Be that as it may, the discerning would have observed that Atiku is not even talking more about the allegation that he was out-rigged in the election again. May be he has realised the dead-end that that has become. If three people from the same party went their different ways at election time, it would take a repeat of the Miracle of Dammam for any of them to win an election in which they had a formidable challenger. May be that has dawned on him, rather belatedly. His emphasis is now on CSU. In other words, it is technicality to the rescue. His miserable world press conference confirmed that much.

    And, to show how desperate Atiku and his silent orchestra have become, it is now if you miss the ball, don’t miss the leg.

    But this is not the first time that politicians in Nigeria would be exploiting the gullibility of Nigerians for selfish reasons. A time there was when, in the Buhari years, it was claimed that the then president was not the original Buhari that we knew. That the original Buhari had died and what have you. Interestingly, many Nigerians believed this and still do. In fact, not only did they believe, they were helping to circulate that falsehood. Meaning virtually everyone could be conned? That was the implication of that falsehood. The original Buhari’s wife, Aisha, would have agreed to be under ruffling sheets in ‘the other room’ with a fake husband? The original Buhari’s children would have agreed to call a person that was swapped their authentic father? Buhari’s colleagues in the military, the international community and all could be successfully made to believe that the original Buhari was indeed dead! Come of it! But that is the level of ignorance in the country. Many Nigerians would always believe what they want to believe; they are not interested in evidence.

    Still on Buhari. Recall the time he was sick and was being flown abroad for treatment on several occasions? We cannot forget how at a point the then president was said to have died abroad in the course of treatment. His ‘obituary’ was even released by some politicians at a point. So, how many times would Muhammadu Buhari  die? If the man was a Christian, I am sure some people would have organised service of songs and wake-keep for him while urging Nigerians to await his corpse for state burial!

    What is not funny is that many Nigerians believe such tales by moonlight and, to worsen matters, they are ever ready to flog into line those who try to tell them there is no iota of truth in their claims. Such is the ignorance that the (anti) social media spreads like bush fire.

    Obviously, the harsh situation in the country has contributed in no small measure to the Atiku crowd and anti-Tinubu sentiment. The government must therefore take decisive steps to reduce the hardship in the country.  Atiku does not deserve the kind of popularity he seems to be enjoying, especially in the permissive new media.

    This is a rolling stone without ideological conviction. In his inordinate ambition to rule Nigeria, nothing noble matters to him. He jumps in and out of political trains as soon as he discovers he cannot get the presidential ticket where he is. There must be something inherently wrong in the ambition of a man who wants to succeed his ethnic stock in a plural society like Nigeria. Atiku had made six attempts at the presidency and lost. If he tries a seventh time he will still lose if he remains his unstable or selfish self.

    Anyway, it is a matter of time for us to  find out whether the man now masquerading as freedom fighter and lover of equity has the clean hands to pursue such noble objectives.

    All said, this is the time for lawyers to make money off politicians. I suspect Atiku’s lawyers are still the ones urging him on. When lawyers who are eager to make money off politicians meet incurable optimists that many of our politicians are, the result is the kind of desperation that is making Atiku run helter-skelter, having returned from America almost empty-handed, when he had hoped to bring in the joker to nail the Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency.

  • Atiku, Obi upstaging Supreme Court

    Atiku, Obi upstaging Supreme Court

    After days of hesitation, Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 election, Peter Obi, has finally picked up the gauntlet of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, by challenging President Bola Tinubu on his alleged certificate discrepancies. Alhaji Atiku had inveigled Mr Obi and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in the same election, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, into weighing in on the president’s certificate saga, encouraging them to help create a groundswell of agitation capable of undermining the presidential election outcome. Mr Kwankwaso sneered at the request and thought it beneath his dignity to engage in a futile and ignoble campaign over nothing. Mr Obi initially derided the request and suggested very grandly that he and his party were already prosecuting the matter in the courts. Mr Kwankwaso stands pat; but Mr Obi has dithered.

    On October 11, five days after the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku, solicited the unlawful involvement of his co-presidential contestants in a scheme of doubtful utility, Mr Obi has done a u-turn, embraced the Atiku plot, and addressed a world press conference of his own. Well, he differentiates his press conference by calling it an international press conference. But the objective remains the same: to delegitimise the February 25 presidential election outcome, pressure the Supreme Court into endorsing the plotters’ nebulous wishes, create an artificial stalemate, and ultimately engender a rebellion of some kind. Clearly, they have not given up. Mr Kwankwaso has sensibly dissociated himself from the campaign; but Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi have formed a pact of steel against that election.

    Read Also: Strip Atiku of national honours, CSOs tell Tinubu

    Last week, newspapers chafed at the former vice president’s so-called world press conference that disseminated so much piffle about the president’s Chicago State University (CSU) certificate despite the school proving that President Tinubu attended their school and graduated with honours. Alhaji Atiku remained undaunted, for he remains someone never discombobulated by facts, reason, or evidence. This week, the long-suffering people of Nigeria, having been assailed by another certificate and election result denier, Mr Obi, will have the onerous responsibility of chafing at needless provocations all over again. Alhaji Atiku was original in his press conference, though a little flamboyant, self-righteous and conceited; the same could, however, not be said of Mr Obi’s. His international press conference was superfluous, and what he had to say was wistful, sophistic and vacuous.

    Hear Mr Obi: “Having followed the prolonged identity crisis that recently played out in the American Court System and the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Chicago State University credentials of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I must confess that I am distressed as a Nigerian…To outsiders, the entire CSU matter as well as Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s many lingering identity question marks have further worsened Nigeria’s less-than-glorious image internationally. Uninformed outsiders now see every other Nigerian as a potential fraudster, certain forger, or identity thief…”

    The gravamen of the PDP and LP candidates’ animosities is the declaration of President Tinubu as winner of the poll. Both candidates already have their petitions before the Supreme Court where they headed after their devastating losses at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC). The lower court unanimously decided they had no case, having failed woefully to provide evidence and arguments to substantiate their pleadings. As a matter of routine and to save face, both candidates have taken their complaints to the Supreme Court, but still without any evidence or material of any kind relevant to substantiating their cases. However, while Mr Obi has nothing new, let alone relevant, Alhaji Atiku seems to think that the president’s credentials which he got from CSU could be tendered as fresh evidence material to his case. Why he believes that an allegation which should routinely be tried at a lower court can be tendered and litigated at the Supreme Court, and in an election case, defies both law and common sense.

    What is obvious from the two candidates’ perambulations is that they undoubtedly know that they have no chance at the Supreme Court. They have, therefore, sought to muddy the waters by throwing red herrings all over the place and, by the agencies of their social media warriors, inciting the public into rebellion. Increasingly, the incitement has become brazen and unconscionable. The campaigns have in recent days falsely assumed that a case of forgery had been established against President Tinubu, irrespective of what Alhaji Atiku found at CSU, and that it had led to the diminution of national credibility. But their instincts tell them that going by what they have, there is no way to convince the Supreme Court to find the case in their favour. So, the only way out is insurrection, a rebellion they are determined to procure by any means. For the two leading candidates, whose educational records are also very murky, it says a lot about their leadership style and philosophy that they appear eager to countenance and even promote the collapse of Nigeria than watch someone else be president. They do not mind, in the process, to demolish the Supreme Court in order to achieve their aims.

  • Saint Atiku as moral exemplar? (1)

    Saint Atiku as moral exemplar? (1)

    It is quite absurd and a grand irony. Having lost his fragile petition against the outcome of the February 25, 2023, presidential election, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, proceeded on a voyage in futility to the United States of America in quest of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s academic records at the Chicago State University (USA). Acting in consonance with an order of a US court, the CSU released Tinubu’s transcripts and other documents to Atiku.

    Alas, there was no smoking gun for Atiku and his legal team to feast on. The CSU registrar, Carl Wesberg, even deposed on oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the university with honors and that it is the same male student at the time between 1977 and 1999 who is President of Nigeria today.

    Despite these glaring and indisputable facts, the Atiku team continue in their bid to nullify an already declared election result in which a clear winner has emerged by questioning the winner’s qualification to run rather than demonstrate concretely in court through incontrovertible evidence that he won the polls. What is ironical is that in the wake of the former Vice President’s barren mission to the US, a great deal of searchlight has been beamed on Atiku’s own educational credentials and identity.

    Intense questions have been asked on social media as to why some of his certificates bear the name, Sadique or Sidique Abubakar and others Atiku Abubakar or Atiku Jokoli. The PDP presidential candidate has tendered the affidavit he swore to effect the change of name but has given no concrete reason why he did so. Thus, legitimate questions have been raised in several quarters on whether we are confronted here with a question of multiple identities for various purposes on the part of the PDP presidential candidate.

    Given the tenacity and vehemence with which Atiku has pursued the issue of President Tinubu’s certificate from the CSU, one would think that he has a stellar academic record to flaunt. No, his educational trajectory is quite modest and largely undistinguished. This is unlike Tinubu who graduated on the honors roll with distinction as stated on oath by the CSU. Atiku holds a diploma from the School of Hygiene, Kano and later graduated with a Diploma in Law from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Institute of Administration. And in 2021, Atiku purportedly completed and bagged a Master’s degree in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University. But how could he have registered for and acquired a Master’s degree without the prerequisite of a first degree?

    Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last election, has characteristically jumped unto the Atiku bandwagon. In his own press conference on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, he asked that President Tinubu re-introduce himself to Nigerians. This is of course quite farcical. Tinubu has been active in the public sphere playing diverse roles hugely contributory to the country’s socio-economic and political development over the last three and a half decades. He is certainly far better known than Obi across vast swathes of the country; a fact that was obvious from the spread of his electoral support across the country in the last presidential election.

    But just like Atiku, questions have been raised as regards some of Obi’s academic records in the public domain. For instance, some have wondered how he got admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsuka (UNN) without the requisite O level credits in English and Mathematics. Again, it has been alleged that while he graduated from the UNN in 1984, he obtained his General Certificate of Education (GCE) certificate in 1986! There is certainly something fishy here. Again, an executive member of a faction of the LP who claims to have been a member of the panel that screened the then presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential poll, has claimed that the documents submitted to INEC by Obi namely the secondary school certificate, NYSC certificate and the UNN certificate bear different names.

    Read Also: The trial of Bola Tinubu

    Ordinarily, all these should be of no moment once elections have been held and the people have expressed their preferences at the ballot box. All these issues just like those raised against President Tinubu are pre-election matters and the Constitution as well as the Electoral Act have given ample opportunities for aggrieved persons and parties to raise objections to credentials submitted to INEC by contestants at the intra-party primary contests. This is particularly so since these documents are displayed by the commission for public scrutiny and possible legal action to address identified discrepancies before party primaries.

    It is interesting that at his ‘World Press Conference’ at which he dilated on his purported discovery on his certificate fishing expedition to the US, Atiku posed as a moral crusader whose actions particularly in search of President Tinubu’s certificate were motivated by considerations of promoting ethical standards in public life as well as transparency and accountability on the part of public office holders. This is obviously a most intriguing transmogrification of the Atiku we all know too well into Sainthood. But does Atiku’s trajectory in public life offer a picture of adherence to or respect for the highest ethical standards? Do we now have on our hands a ‘born-again’ Saint Atiku? This self-portrait by Atiku and his handlers is entirely fictive, deceptive and self-serving.

    In terms of character and moral integrity, Tinubu stands shoulder high above Atiku. A person’s character is best portrayed at times of crisis such as Nigeria was plunged into after the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the consequent emergence of the ruthless late General Sani Abacha to consolidate the stranglehold of military dictatorship in Nigeria. These were times when many men and women of supposed integrity sold their conscience to the military dictatorship for a mess of pottage. As Martin Luther (Jnr) immortally noted, it is impossible for a man of integrity to sit on the fence at periods of great moral crises.

    What were the responses of Tinubu and Atiku to the crisis? Tinubu threw himself fervently into the pro-June 12 and pro-democracy struggle, committing all of his energy, time and resources to the struggle to force the exit of the military from the political space and bring about restoration of democratic governance. In taking this option, Tinubu put his very life on the line, his residence on Victoria Island was fire bombed and he ultimately had to flee the country on exile joining other Nigerians abroad to intensify the campaign against the perpetuation in power of the Abacha regime. That is character. That is integrity.

    But what about Saint Atiku? How did he react at a time of severe political and moral crises for his country when so many patriotic Nigerians were laying down life, limb and livelihood to free their country from the humiliating jackboots of military misrule? The Waziri Adamawa opted to join the defunct United National Congress Party (UNCP), one of the five parties famously described by the inimitable late Chief Bola Ige as the five fingers of the leprous hand of the Abacha administration. He participated actively in the Abacha junta’s political transition programme probably oblivious of the credibility crisis created for the process by Abacha’s scarcely designed self-perpetuation agenda.

    On the platform of the UNCP, Atiku sought to contest for governorship of Adamawa State. To make matters worse, he reportedly kept a distance from his mentor and benefactor, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who had been incarcerated at Abakaliki prison for trumped up coup charges so as not to be in the bad books of the Abacha regime and jeopardize his governorship ambition. There can be no better example of a lack of fidelity to leadership, crass and unfeeling opportunism and deficiency in ethical integrity.

    Ironically, seeking to play on sentiments, Atiku at his world press conference, invoked the name of the late great human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, (SAN) describing him as the motivating spirit behind his efforts to unravel the truth as regards President Tinubu’s certificate from the CSU. Yes, Gani Fawehinmi put up a strenuous fight to get Tinubu impeached as governor of Lagos State on the unproven allegation of certificate forgery but failed. The truth of the matter is that no one, not even the highly respected Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM), Chief Fawehinmi, could produce any documents purportedly forged by Tinubu.

    Interestingly, however, as the late legal luminary battled the cancer that had attacked his body, Tinubu paid him a visit at his Anthony Village home in Lagos. A surprised Fawehinmi was appreciative of Tinubu’s gesture despite the previously strained relationship between them and he was full of approbation for the latter. Did Atiku even send a token message of sympathy to a man whose name he now exploits for political reasons at the time of his health travails? It is unlikely.

    In any case, what was Fawehinmi’s perception of Atiku and the PDP administration under which he served as Vice President? In an interview in 2007, Fawehinmi was scathing in his critique of both. In his words, “I am appalled because if not for the feud between him (Obasanjo) and Atiku, we may never have known that Atiku was messing up with the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF). Obasanjo cannot say that he did not know that Atiku was stealing money from the PTDF, established in 1973, meant for the welfare of our country by training our brilliant students in the universities with the fund”.

    Continuing, Fawehinmi lamented that “A fund meant for the improvement of our petroleum technology, a fund meant to ensure that the sons and daughters of poor parents who have the intellect can engage in research work. But alas, this fund was used, not only to pay lawyers but to establish just one company alone. Now, Atiku dipped his hand into it, (businessman Oyewole) Fasawe dipped his hand into it and Mr President dipped his hand into it for personal reasons. We want to have the full story of PTDF and other agencies of government”.

  • Strip Atiku of national honours, CSOs tell Tinubu

    Strip Atiku of national honours, CSOs tell Tinubu

    Irked by what it termed unpatriotic act of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Political Parties for Good Governance (PPGG), has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to strip him of the national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).

    The groups argued that there was nothing honourable about Atiku for making unguarded and baseless allegations, adding that he has never subscribed to true democracy nor respected the rule of law. 

    Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Convener of the CSOs, Dr Lilian Ene Ogbole, also urged Nigerians to ignore the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, “for dragging the image of Nigeria in the mould.”

    Ogbole said stripping Atiku will serve as a deterrent to others so that Nigerians can begin to henceforth attach some regard to the office of the President. 

    She also lambasted the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for questioning the identity of President Tinubu, describing it as childish, shameful and laughable.

    “It keeps getting clearer that former vice president Atiku Abubakar is on a collision course with national interest and has never subscribed to true democracy nor respected the rule of law.

    “These assertions were made even clearer when he revealed to the world during his over-hipped, baseless, and content-ridden world press conference, how he singlehandedly relinquished Lagos state to Asiwaju while they fraudulently took over other Southwestern states by hook and crook during the 2003 general election. 

    “This no doubt is a mockery of our collective sensibility as a people committed to the ideals of constitutional democracy.  

    Read Also: Atiku’s appeal lacks facts, Tinubu tells Supreme Court

    “It truly beats our imagination how a man with a long history of electoral manipulation, habitual disrespect for constituted authority and serial election manipulator who will stop at nothing, whether moral or immoral, will shamelessly come to the public domain to accuse a true and descent democrat of attributes that are alien to him.

    “It is common knowledge that most of the dirty characteristics that Atiku has falsely accused President Tinubu of are synonymous with his name and character as confirmed by his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo who lacked words of expression to qualify Atiku’s lack of patriotism and decency. 

    “As stakeholders in the business of nation-building, we wish to use this medium to call on President Tinubu to utilise the authority conferred on him by the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended to protect the image and interest of the country by stripping Atiku Abubakar Sadiq of the national honours of GCON.

    “You will agree with us that a man with Atiku’s character is not honourable and does not deserve to keep the award that is meant for honourable men and women,” the coalition pleaded.

    Ogbole added that; “stripping Atiku will also serve as a deterrent to others so that Nigerians can begin to henceforth attach some regard to the office of the President.”

    On Obi, the coalition noted: “if Atiku’s press conference is aptly described as a face-saving gimmick, to capture power from the backdoor by weeping casual sentiments by fabricating and speculating lies that have been globally verified and completely buried forever, then Mr obi’s belated press conference over the same issue, is at best childish, shameful and laughable. 

    “It is rather inexplicable and hard to comprehend what manner of desperation we are dealing with, particularly Peter Obi’s desperate attempt to create all manners of doubts around the documents and personal information that Mr President submitted to INEC without a single proof of evidence to substantiate his claims.

    “Rather than providing evidence to contradict President Tinubu’s submissions to INEC, Obi laughably requested the President to help him with evidence that will invalidate the certificates and information submitted to INEC.”

  • Atiku’s appeal lacks facts, Tinubu tells Supreme Court

    Atiku’s appeal lacks facts, Tinubu tells Supreme Court

    • Claims on my Chicago varsity credentials cooked up, says President

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal filed by Atiku Abubakar challenging his victory in the February 25 poll.

    The President said there was no basis to “disturb” the findings of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) because its verdict was “rooted in law”.

    The PEPC on September 6 dismissed petitions by Atiku, Labour Party (LP)’s Peter Obi, and Allied Peoples Movement (APM)’s ChiChi Ojei petitions.

    Atiku and Obi filed appeals before the apex court.

    Urging the highest court to throw out Atiku’s appeal, Tinubu said his opponent’s petition was “laced with thrilling suspense, stunning surprises and ecstatic hide-and-seek recreational activities”.

    The President believes the claim that his credentials contained discrepancies was cooked up by Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after failing to secure evidence to support their claim that he was not qualified to contest the election.

    In his respondent’s brief in the appeal by Atiku and the PDP, Tinubu urged the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the judgment of the lower court which upheld his election.

    Tinubu said he was validly elected having polled the highest number of votes.

    Stating that he was validly returned as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu added that he garnered one-quarter/25 per cent of the total votes in 29 states.

    He said Atiku and the PDP only managed to secure 25 per cent of the total votes in 21 states, “as against the constitutional requirement of 24.7 states, which is the mathematical results of two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT (making 37).”

    Tinubu stated that having secured the highest number of valid votes cast and having fulfilled all constitutional requirements in that regard, INEC had no option but to declare him the winner.

    He added that Atiku and the PDP, being dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, approached the PEPC “on trumped up allegations of non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, corrupt practices, non-scoring of a majority of lawful votes cast at the election and non-qualification of the respondent.

    “The hyperbolic character of the forgoing allegations was exposed by the petition itself, which had no facts in support thereof.

    “Starting from the allegation of non-qualification of the respondent, all that the appellants submitted to the lower court through their petition was that the second respondent (Tinubu) was at the time of the election not qualified to contest the election not having the constitutional threshold.”

    Tinubu noted that Atiku and the PDP failed to explain what they meant by “constitutional threshold” until all the respondents filed their replies to the petition.

    He added: “It was at this point that they rolled out their drums of cooked-up allegations of discrepancies in the second respondent’s (Tinubu’s) academic qualifications, dual nationality and sundry bemusing allegations from the backdoor.

    “While they also claimed to have won the highest number of votes cast at the election, as against INEC’s declaration, throughout their petition they did not suggest an alternative score which they considered correct, whether for themselves or the respondent.

    “Though they had alleged that the election was riddled with non-compliance and corrupt practices, the paragraphs of their petition putting up these allegations were nothing short of vague, imprecise, generic and nebulous.

    Read Also: BREAKING: Claim of discrepancies in my credentials fabricated by Atiku, says Tinubu

    “For these allegations which ought to have been specifically demonstrated through facts and figures like polling units and numbers, the appellants, through their petition, chose to regale the lower court and the respondents with breathtaking suspense by stating that the said facts will be disclosed in their statistician’s report which was not part of the petition filed.

    “It is only commonsensical that the respondents will only be able to respond to the facts in the petition and not on the crucial, albeit anticipated statistician’s report, since even the devil himself knows not the heart of man.”

    Tinubu noted that of 27 witnesses called by Atiku and the PDP during proceedings at the PEPC, 13 did not have their witness statements front-loaded.

    “With these, it was obvious that the appellants did not intend to prosecute a petition, but rather, to venture into some form of blockbuster, laced with thrilling suspense, stunning surprises and ecstatic hide-and-seek recreational activities.

    “These necessitated a series of objections from the respondents challenging the competence of the petition, as well as the itemised nebulous paragraphs of same, the statement on oath of these subpoenaed witnesses, which were not front-loaded with the petition and tons of documents sought to be tendered, which were either irrelevant or unconforming to the mandatory rules of admissibility.”

    The President argued that Atiku and the PDP did not demonstrate any reason the apex court should disturb any of the findings of the lower court, “which with all modesty, are rooted in law and perfect demonstration of scholarship.”

    Tinubu added that even though Atiku challenged his qualifications, however, in his alternative prayer in court, he requested to have a run-off election with him.

    He added: “The logical conclusion from this approbative and reprobative posture of the appellants is that deep down in their hearts, they are convinced that the second respondent won the election, but have decided to embark on this voyage of abuse of court process.”

    Tinubu noted that whereas Atiku and the PDP raised the issue of non-transmission of results, all their witnesses at the PEPC, “agreed that the election went very smoothly” and that “INEC complied with all the prescribed procedures.”

    He argued that the tribunal was correct in arriving at its verdict and affirming his election.

    Tinubu stated: “None of the appellants have demonstrated any reason why this honourable court should disturb any of the findings of the lower court, which, with all modesty are rooted in law and perfect demonstration of scholarship.

    “We accordingly urge this honourable court to affirm the decision of the lower court, while dismissing this appeal in its entirety, as same is lacking in merit and bona fide.

    “Everything put together or summarised, this appeal is a further demonstration of the abusive nature to which the appellants have subjected court processes. The Supreme Court is urged to dismiss it.”