The 2023 presidential election has come and gone but the contentions it is generating have not only created more cleavages among many ethnic nationalities that make up the country, they have also placed an illegitimacy robe on the All progressive Congress, APC’s president-elect, Ahmed Bola Tinubu because the process that led to his declaration has the trappings of fraud and irregularities
By Miracle Egbo
It is a common commodity in the streets of major cities in the country that the February 25, 2023 presidential election had the trappings of a yahoo yahoo menu. The electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, prior to the election proper unleashed lies on the electorate like aconfetti in most of the conversations they had, insisting that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BIVAS would ensure that the votes of the electorate would count. But all to no avail, instead INEC had allegedly shortchanged the electorate with the mantra that there were technical glitches when it came to the second leg of the lies that the results from the polling units would be uploaded in the INEC Results Verification portal, IREV real time. Information gleaned from the manufacturers of the BIVAS had contradicted the submission of the election umpire that the machine developed glitches when it was time to transmit the result of the presidential election, an attitude that has been dissected in some political quarters to be similar to the antics of the yahoo yahoo commanders in the course of their illicit deals.
The non-chalant attitude of the National Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu to the agents of the frontline political parties at the collation centre left much to be desired. When his attention was pointed to the fact that some of the rules and regulations set up by the umpire are deliberately being observed in the breach, he ignored them accentuating his statement with “go to court, if you are not satisfied with what is going on at the collation centre”. It was gathered that the INEC leader in his haste to do the biddings of his alleged paymasters forgot to dot the I’s and cross the T’s in declaring the candidate of APC as the “winner” of the election that is dented with fraud, dirty ethnic profiling, alleged vote buying, oppression and suppression of prospective voters and violence of various degrees. The man he declared as the winner has a lot of baggage that makes his presidency un-presidential.
Health Status
Wags in town suggest that the health profile of the President-elect Tinubu is in the realm of speculation. His spin doctors would always tell whoever cares to listen that Tinubu is fit as fiddle, therefore, there is no basis for anybody to say that he is not healthy enough to preside over the affairs of the country. But on the contrary, facts on the ground suggest that the health profile of the President –elect left much to be desired. Information at the disposal of this medium is that the former governor of Lagos State who is the President-elect is allegedly suffering from a terminal disease that may intermittently slow his work when sworn in as the President of the country. Students of this school of thought insist that foisting an ailing president on the country would incontrovertibly be a hole in the meager coffers of a country that is in a thither of death, financially speaking. The worries of those who are opposing his swearing-in on account of the alleged dwindling health of Tinubu might have found expression in his off and on medical tourism abroad even before he declared his intension to vie for the post of presidency. His traducers in this regard argue that his health condition is going to affect negatively the discharge of his duty as the president of the country. Sources revealed that his health status suggests that his cognitive thinking had been allegedly eroded by the gnawing of the disease in his body system. Tinubu’s spin doctors would always advise the general public to dud the idea that he is not fit to rule because of his health status because according to them ruling a country is not a sprint,” if he has qualified personnel to run the affairs of the country diligently why worry about his cognitive deficit and focus on what he will bring to the table to better the country”.
Tinubu’s supporters have quipped at many fora that health issues of Tinubu are a non issue because according to them, he has shown that he is fit to rule as expressed in the energy he wrought in his campaign tour of the 37 states of the federation, soliciting the votes of the electorate. His supporters have suggested to the populace that the electorate should disregard the health issues and focus on developmental trajectory of Tinubu when he held sway as the governor of Lagos State.
Academic Scandal
The academic profile of the President-elect had been shrouded in mystery. Investigation orchestrated by Tentacle revealed that all the places he claimed to have attended school are up in flames of controversies. For instance, the primary and secondary schools he claimed to have attended are either he was never a student of such school or such school does not exist. He claimed to have attended Government College Ibadan, fact findings in the school revealed that he was not in that school the time he claimed, and had not been able to mention any of his classmate living or dead. As at the time of filing this report, Tinubu has not been able to tell the electorate where the primary school he attended is located either in Lagos where he claimed citizenship or in Iragbiji, a suburb in Osun State where he actually hailed from. Worse still, the Chicago University he claimed to have attended to qualify as accountant, facts oozing out of the institution revealed that the name on the certificate issued by the institution which Tinubu lays claim to belongs to a woman, late, with similar name Bola Amuda Tinubu. The photograph on the transcript made available to the public is that of a woman not Tinubu. Beyond his certificate scandal lie the controversies surrounding his place of birth. Tinubu had repeatedly claimed that his from the Tinubu Family in Lagos State but information gleaned by this medium suggests otherwise. Information at the disposal of this medium revealed that Tinubu has no biological attachment to the family instead his umbilical cord was located in Iragbiji, a suburb in Osun State. The information went further to reveal that the biological mother of Tinubu was in Iragbiji before her death even when Tinubu was governor of Lagos State, and it was gathered that he did not attend the burial of his alleged mother, though allegedly. The former governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola, it has been established is the cousin of Tinubu, and has no link to the Tinubu Family in Lagos. Suspicion is rife that Tinubu may not have attached his academic qualification credentials in the INEC form he filled before participating in the presidential election. This may be one of the grounds his opponents Atiku Abubarka of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP will be standing on to challenge Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the 2023 presidential election.
It would be recalled that in 1999 when Tinubu contested for the Lagos State governorship, he had allegedly failed to attach his academic credentials while filling the INEC form. After he had won the election and sworn-in as governor he was challenged by the erudite lawyer, late Gani Fawehinmi at the court whereupon the court ruled that having been sworn-in, Tinubu enjoyed constitutional immunity against any form of litigation, the case died a natural death. But in the current situation, unlike in 1999 Atiku and Obi are already in the court before Tinubu will be sworn-in as president.
Chicago Narcotics
Facts and figures emanating from court of competent jurisdiction confirmed that Tinubu in the1990s was convicted of narcotics related offences, and in his plea bargain agreed to forfeit $460,000 that is accruable from narcotics trafficking traced to Tinubu’s accounts when he was residing in the United States America. Certified True Copy of the judgments had been circulating in the social media, and from grapevine, officials from the Court are ever ready to come and bear witness at the Presidential Election Tribunal if subpoenaed during the trial. Nigerians living in the United States have staged several protests in the city of Chicago brandishing documents to suggest that Tinubu had been neck deep in the narcotic business even after the forfeiture of the huge money in USA. The protesters chanting war songs said that they are in possession of damning documents obtained from the court which has indicted Tinubu for drug related offences in USA.
Dual Citizenship
The debacle of the dual citizenship of Tinubu has been raging. It has been established that he is a citizen of Guinea Bissau, an assertion that the authorities of Guinea have confirmed. This revelation has impugned on his eligibility to contest the election in the first place, citing the constitution. However, constitution analysts have argued that the issue of dual citizenship does not hold water as it affects his legitimacy to contest presidency with dual citizenship. Lawyers who are in the know have argued that the issue of dual citizenship becomes an issue because he, Tinubu lied on oath by telling INEC that he has no dual citizenship in the Form he filled to contest for the presidential election, adding that he had committed perjury which is a criminal offence. Mr. Michael Aondokaa, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation said that perjury is a state case, and if Tinubu is sworn-in before the case gets to the court, it is not going to amount to anything because he would have been protected by immunity as the president of the country. Aondokaa further stressed that the case was not contained in the petitions filed at the Appeal Court Presidential Election Tribunal by LP and PDP and other two political parties challenging the process that led to the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
Shettima’s Double Ticket
Investigation scooped by this medium revealed that Kashim Shettima’s, the Vice President-elect was nominated senatorial candidate of APC before he was called to be the Vice President to Tinubu. It was gathered that as at the time he was chosen to be the running mate of TInubu he did not relinquish the senatorial ticket given to him by his party, a negligence constitutional lawyers say is an infraction in the eyes of the law and cannot stand. The analysts insisted that with such act, Shettima is not qualified to contest the election.
Constitutional lawyers are of the opinion that that singular infraction is enough to disqualify the duo of Tinubu and Shettima as President-elect and Vice President-elect. According to them, the constitution frowns at the attitude exhibited by the Vice President-elect. How Tinubu and his team of lawyers will wriggle out of this mess, analysts argued, will pose a big a challenge to the jurists at the court.
25% FCT Votes
The Nigerian Constitution said that for anybody to be declared winner of the presidential election, he or she must score 25 percent of the 2/3 of the states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. In the just concluded election the President-elect did not score the required 25 per cent in Abuja. The contestation being pushed by the supporters of the President-elect is that the “and” inserted in that section of the constitution is not conjunctive, therefore, FCT is not required to win an election. However, opponents in this contestation are of the opinion that Tinubu’s lawyers and supporters are trying to re-write English language’s meaning by saying that “and” should be dud in its function in that sentence . According to them “and” in that Section means that FCT is separate and should not be lumped together with other states. Whichever divided of the argument you belong, one thing is clear, the meaning of “and” in that sentence cannot be changed, and drafters of the constitution in the spirit of accommodation treated Abuja as not being a state, but to give the citizens living in Abuja a stake in the presidential election since they do not vote at the governorship election. Thus the Abuja determination status is constitutional and cannot be wished away by mere legal technicalities, many lawyers opined.
Mike Igini, a former Resident Electoral Commissioner and consultant to INEC in many interviews granted to media insisted that for a candidate to be declared the winner of the presidential election the person must score 25 per cent of the votes in FCT, Abuja. Investigations revealed that when Igini was all over the places declaring that a candidate must win 25 per cent of FCT, INEC as a body never said no to such assertion or disputed such until February 25, 2023 when the same electoral umpire contradicted Igini by declaring somebody who did not win the required 25 per cent in FCT.
Hear him: “Far more important is the provision of Section 134 Sub Section 2b of the Nigerian constitution which stipulated the fact that no presidential candidate can be declared a winner in this election without having 25 per cent in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja. That is very important for the whole world to know that 2023 presidential election whenever it would be declared, apart from scoring 25 per cent in 24 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Federal Capital territory is like a compulsory question , you can answer all other questions without the 25 per cent score in FCT, you go nowhere and cannot be declared as the winner of the presidential race”.
As it stands, Tinubu is getting set to be sworn-in come May 29, 2023. How the seven-man Supreme Court Justices that would preside over the case are going to interpret the Abuja debacle remains a huge hurdle that would put Tinubu’s presidency to the test.
Election Rigging
At the February 25, 2023 presidential election the rigging that took place, according to reports, sticks out like a sore thumb. From North to the South, evidences of vote swapping in favour of the president-elect is so palpable that even the blind could see that the numbers churned out in favour of Tinubu were heavily falsified. For instance, in Rivers, Benue, Nasarawa, Lagos, Bauchi, Kaduna,Taraba, Plateau, Akwa Ibom , Oyo, Ekiti, and Cross River States, facts made available to this medium revealed that votes garnered by the candidate of LP, Obi was swapped for Tinubu to shore up the required 25 per cent to win the election. The mutilation witnessed in Form EC8 where the results of the pulling units were recorded indicated that Obi won the election as against what was declared by INEC. In Bauchi Local Government of Bauchi State, Obi scored 199 votes in one local government at the collation centre 185 votes were recorded for him as the total votes he scored in the whole state. The implication of these results is that Obi never recorded any votes in any other local government areas of the state, and even the 199 he scored was reduced to 185 to favour the winner. Ditto for Rivers State where in a local government council, Obi scored 226,000 votes as against Tinubu 17,000 but at the collation centre the votes were swapped and Tinubu ended up scoring 226,000 while Obi got 7,000. “What a robbery” exclaimed one of the agents of LP in Rivers in one of the interviews he granted with documents to back up his claim that the election was massively rigged in favour of Tinubu.
Why Courts Will Not Give Obi‘s Petition Fair Hearing –Femi Fani-Kayode
Facts gleaned from the investigation orchestrated by this medium revealed that the northern oligarchy has vowed that power would never be given to anybody who is from the South East, the reason Obi was massively rigged out. It was gathered that Yakubu the INEC boss had his job cut out by the Fulani cabal in the cabinet of Buhari administration who had before now instructed him to do everything politically possible to make sure the presidential candidate of LP who is an Igbo man was not announced as the winner even if he won the election.
Femi Fani Kayode, former Minster of Aviation and one of the spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, PCC had previously told the whole world there was articulated plan by the Fulani oligarchy to make sure that power is never ceded to the South East no matter what. According to him, even if somebody from the South East won the presidential election as Obi has just won, power would never be ceded to a South Easterner because they cannot be trusted.
Fani-Kayode said that “If you believe that those in power in Nigeria today will ever contemplate the possibility of giving power to an Igbo man then you have not fully understood the problem we have in this country.
“You need to understand the mindset of these people that President Buhari represent, not all of them but those that Buhari represents, his own Fulani clique with the Fulani ruling class, not all of the Fulani but his own cliques who are in power today. Their mindset is that the most dangerous people in the country today are the South East people, and they are to be suppressed by all means possible including denying them presidency even if they win.
“You need to understand that before the civil war, the same people he (Buhari) was active then, you need to remember the role they played on July 29th 1966 when the northern officers in a counter coup killed 300 Igbo officers including the then Head of State, Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi , Buhari was actively involved in that killing. They said that it was a payback time for what happened in January 15, 1966”.
With this revelation emanating from a chieftain of the ruling APC it is now obvious why the pending petition by Obi at the Presidential Election Tribunal might not bear any fruits because the Fulani cabal in Nigeria would not allow the judiciary to adjudicate the matter in favour of Igbo man. The collaboration with some South West and Fulani oligarchy may impugn the merits of the case at the tribunal.
