One of the founding members of the ruling All Progressives
Congress, APC, Mr Osita Okechukwu has stated that as a Buharist that had
experienced the pain of losing post-election litigations, he fully understands
the grief of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Labour Party, LP, and Allied
Peoples Movement, APM, members over the outcome of the Presidential Election
Petition Court (PEPC)’s judgment.
Okechukwu, who spoke to journalists in Abuja in reaction to
the judgment, noted that although the main opposition PDP had bright chances of
bouncing back through the 2023 presidential election, the political greed of
the party’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, denied the party victory.
The Tribunal judgement has so far gone in favour of
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Okechukwu noted that while he sympathises with PDP, LP and APM, the petitioners, particularly supporters of the PDP and “the LP should not blame the PEPC but His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubukar, whose hubris and greed combined to deny them victory.”
He also noted that Atiku’s failure to rise to the golden
opportunity and play as a statesman by throwing support for his erstwhile
running mate Peter Obi or any other Southern presidential candidate divided the
opposition party, adding, “Atiku dealt PDP a huge blow from which it might be
difficult to recover.”
He dismissed claims by the petitioners that alleged
irregularities in the conduct of the election, Tinubu’s qualification, as well
as the failure to electronically transmit results in real time were fatal to
the respondents’ case.
“Those intricate webs could have been resolved if Atiku had
obeyed the zoning convention, supported Peter Obi or any other Southern
presidential candidate it could been simply an all southern bout. The Wike
masquerade couldn’t have emerged. That would have meant that the bulk of votes
he garnered could have been credited to PDP.
“Atiku divided PDP’s votes irreparably, all the votes Labour
Party garnered were from the party’s stronghold, minus voted warehoused by the
former Vice President who naively forgot that northern voters are one of the
most sophisticated in the country, but believed that northern electorate would
behave like children in a dormitory waiting for directives on how to vote,” he
declared.
Okechukwu, who is also the Director General of Voice of
Nigeria (DG, VON), remarked that President Tinubu deserves accolades for
rescuing the zoning convention which guarantees equity, and natural justice
between the north and south.
He stated: “First and foremost, let me congratulate
President Tinubu, for rescuing the zoning convention, a ligament binding north
and south from unprecedented assault.
“To be honest, my take is that the opposition lost the
election that day in 2022, when His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar trampled
on the presidential zoning convention, which governed the 4th Republic Nigeria
and was also embedded in his party’s Constitution.
“Recall that Atiku earned accolades when he stormed out of
PDP Convention in 2014 in protest that President Goodluck Jonathan was
breaching the zoning convention. And, in 2018, Governor Nyesom Wike hosted PDP
Convention in Port Harcourt and ensured that only northern presidential
aspirants contested for the presidential ticket as a way of honouring the
zoning convention.
“So, it is obvious that when Atiku sacrificed statesmanship
on the altar of narrow political ambition, one concluded that he had wittingly
or unwittingly fatally wounded the fabric of PDP. And, going by the time worn
cliché, a divided house cannot stand, Nigerians should recognise that Atiku by
his greed denied PDP a possible victory.”
On the way forward, the APC chieftain suggested a revised
Electoral Act that will resolve all evident ambiguities, by enthroning
mandatorily only electronic accreditation and transmission of results.
“I subscribe to the idea that we should totally abolish
manual collation of results and make electronic transmission of results
mandatory.
“We also need to return to the popular Justice Uwais
Handbook on Electoral Reform, which among other fine democratic tenets
recommended how best to transparently recruit the INEC Chairman, Commissioners
and sundry officials.
“With these altercations, Election Petitions will definitely
be concluded before swearing-in of winners.
“Let us not forget that our democracy has witnessed
tremendous advancement and keep in mind the fact that democracy is not a
revolution, but a work in progress,” Okechukwu submitted.
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