PUNCH
Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment has once again dashed the hope of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of becoming the President of the most populous black nation, ABDULRAHMAN ZAKARIYAU writes
The Supreme Court, which is the final arbiter of all courts in Nigeria, on Thursday laid to rest the claim by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; that the 2023 presidential election was rigged in favour of the All Progressives Congress.
The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the APC’s candidate, President Bola Tinubu, and dismissed the former Vice-President’s appeal for lacking merit.
Atiku, who was born in November 1946, started his five-time failed attempts for the office of the President in 2007.
Atiku, a product of consultation and political calculation, became the Vice President to former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who won on the platform of the PDP after the return of the country to democratic rule in 1999. Expectedly, things did not go as planned, as the ambitious Atiku and his boss were at each other’s throats.
Dumped by the former President and a few stakeholders in the PDP, Atiku sought cover and defected to the defunct Action Congress, a party formed and solely financed by the former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu. Favoured by Tinubu’s group and the financial muscle, Atiku emerged as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress.
Interestingly, Atiku lost the election to late President Umaru Yar’adua of the PDP, Obasanjo’s anointed candidate. Atiku came a distant third with over 2.4 million votes in the controversial 2007 election which many observers described as a charade.
After his unsuccessful presidential bid, Atiku dumped the AC and retraced his step back to the PDP. Expectedly, in 2011, the Adamawa-born politician, again, threw his hat into the ring. Though he emerged as the PDP’s most favoured candidate in the North; he was roundly defeated by former President, Goodluck Jonathan, who was backed by Obasanjo and some other Nigerians at the Eagle Square in Abuja.
In a quest to fulfill his long-time dream, Atiku, whom many political pundits described as a serial defector, discovered that the outing would favour ex-President Jonathan. In 2013, Atiku led about five governors and walked out of the PDP convention.
In 2014, after the Congress for Progressives Change, Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria People’s Party, and All Progressives Grand Alliance through a coalition formed the APC, Atiku and his co-travellers strolled in. The former Vice President announced his defection from the PDP to the newly formed APC in a press statement.
A few months after joining the APC, Atiku again declared for President. In 2015, Atiku sought the APC ticket along with the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, and former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso in the party’s primary in Lagos. Atiku and his huge financial war chest were roundly defeated by a rebranded ‘poor’ Buhari.
Understanding that President Buhari was going to seek re-election through the APC in 2019, a man many Nigerians described as impatient in 2017 again dumped the APC and returned to the PDP. Atiku muscled his way and grabbed the PDP’s 2019 presidential ticket.
Reluctantly supported by stakeholders in the PDP, Atiku lost the presidential election to former President Buhari. Though Atiku claimed he won the election, he quietly travelled to Dubai and abandoned the legal tussle with his running mate, former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, to shoulder. They also lost, as the court upheld Buhari’s victory.
