VINCENT G UBA FROM THE NATION
It is no longer news that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been issued with the certificate as winner of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria. The President-elect has since commenced strategic planning and composition of teams that would deliver the dividends of his administration to Nigerians.
As expected, some defeated opposition parties’ candidates in the election are crying blue murder for not being able to carry through their plans to subvert the wishes of many Nigerians at the polls. Two of them, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have decided to go to court to challenge the victory of APC in the election.
It is the right thing to do in a democratic dispensation, rather than throw the country into crisis and violence arising from street protests. However, it is important to advise the duo to beware of their journey to court so that they do not end up shooting themselves in the foot.
It was obvious and still, that the desperation of the duo of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to respectively win the February 25, 2023 presidential election defied all forms of logic. Little wonder, when the obnoxious naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria put the ordinary Nigerians on their knees, it did not matter to them as they kept applauding the policy.
The two opposition parties claimed to be very popular and have strong support bases across the country to win the election convincingly. The APC never argued with them nor took their boasts for granted, going into the elections.
That was why the APC campaigned vigorously and tirelessly in the nooks and crannies of the country, to call out the votes. When the results were announced, the party triumphed, though not without severe bruises arising from the rigging machinery of the PDP and LP respectively.
As the ruling party, with twenty one (21) state governors going into the presidential election, the APC was defeated in twelve of those states when the results were announced. It, therefore, becomes ironical to accuse the same APC of election rigging.
The question to be asked then is, where did the APC rig the election, and in whose favour? The party candidate lost in his state of Lagos, lost in Katsina, the state of the state of the sitting President, in Nasarawa, the state of the party’s National Chairman and in Plateau, the state of the party’s campaign Director General.
What is certain about the election is its competitive nature, which went to the wires. Out of the four front-runners in the election, the candidate of the APC was the only one that lost his state.
Yet, the same party is accused of rigging the election, in which it could not rig for its candidate to win his state. Meanwhile, the other three front-runners won their respective states in landslide manners without questioning.
He who seeks equity must come to justice with clean hands and you don’t live in a glass house and be throwing stones. The People’s Democratic Party and the Labour Party should not assume that because the All Progressives Congress is not raising eyebrows suggests that all was well at the polls.
Does it bother anyone that the Labour Party candidate won in the five states of the South East region of Nigeria with between 80% and 95% of the votes? How come no other candidate could achieve such a feat in his region in the same election?
The People’s Democratic Party defeated the ruling party in most states in the Northern region, including the states where the APC has sitting governors. The opposition parties should not assume that they possess the monopoly of knowledge of infractions they caused in the election.
They should be aware that the shenanigans that they displayed in the election are to the knowledge of the ruling party, with documented evidence. They should be prepared to face the exposure of the infractions they committed during the election when they get to the court.
*Uba is a public affairs analyst
