Alhaji Atiku’s Campaign of Character Assassination Against Tinubu -By Wale Alonge

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By Wale Alonge

It is trite law that it takes extraordinarily dire and compelling circumstance before the Supreme Court will allow an appellant to enter new evidence in an appeal case. Atiku in his initial pleading at the Presidential Election Petition Court didn’t bring up the issue of certificate forgery. They had the opportunity to conduct the discovery and investigation they just now completed in Chicago and present their findings before the Nigerian Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) but chose not to. What Alhaji Atiku is now attempting to do is to have a second bite at the apple by advancing a new ground to nullify the ruling at the PEPT.

What we are witnessing with all the hoopla and blah blah on Nigerian social media is the desperate attempt by a drowning man who has lost everything and who has nothing left to lose, and before he is buried deep into the abyss of the ocean is throwing what in American Football lingo we call a desperate last second Hail Mary in the hope of a miracle. Hail Mary is a long, typically unsuccessful pass made in a desperate attempt by a losing team to score late in the game.

The misfortune of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, a man who has spent his entire political career unsuccessfully seeking the presidency, was that he himself was the architect of his own and political party’s misfortune. But for Atiku’s unbridled and selfish political ambition, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be sitting in his Bourdillon Estate leaking his wound and moping over a devastating presidential defeat. Given the absolutely disastrous Buhari’s eight years of APC presidency, the incumbent APC in the run to the last presidential election had no chance in hell or heaven of winning that election had Alhaji Atiku not spilt the PDP votes by driving Obi to Labor Party and forcing Wike to the G-5, due to his selfish political ambition. Alhaji Atiku is therefore like a beheaded Cobra snake who is bent on inflicting its last fatal bite on the one who cut his head off to steal his marble, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

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Let’s not be fooled. Let us not miss the underlying purpose of all the hoopla about Tinubu’s certificate, the campaign of calumny and character assassination on social media. The Atiku camp knows full well that the law is not on its side. They have lawyers who are competent and knowledgeable about the law and the rule of evidence in the Supreme Court. They know full well that they could not litigate before the Supreme Court, a point in law that was not litigated at the PEPT.

So why did they spend millions before the court in Chicago trying to dig the dirt on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Great question for in order to truly understand man’s behavior one must critically examine the motive. Make no mistake about it Atiku didn’t just wake up over night and decide to waste millions pursuing his wild goose chase venture in Chicago. It was a well oiled strategic plan by his team to try their appeal to the ruling of the presidential election petition tribunal, not in the Supreme Court. but in the court of public opinion on social media. So the cacophony you are hearing on social media from the usual suspects, the amalgamation of die-hard Obidients like Festus Adedayo and his gang in the Tribune, the gadfly social activist wannabe Farotimis, the clowns propagandists on Arise TV, and PDP apologists like Dele Momodu is not an accident. Hang on tight for your dear life because they plan to inundate the social media space with all kind of cacophonous innuendos, lies, fake news and perception manipulation tactics to do as much damage to President Tinubu’s reputation both domestically and in the international scene.

The lower Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in its several hours of delivering its ruling on the original petition brought by Obi and Atiku (recall all the slumbering and snoring lawyers in court) nailed their legal coffin by delivering a water-tight ruling with impenetrable legal theories, judicial precedence and erudite legal underpinnings.

Atiku and Obi knew that their goose was cooked. However, just like Obi and his Obidients gang did before the PEPT delivered its judgement (remember all the threatening billboards against the judge panelists) and the social media hyperventilation, the Atiku gang is now attempting to do the same before they meet their Waterloo at the Supreme Court. They are hoping they can do so much damage to Tinubu’s reputation so much so the electorate will find him repugnant and unworthy of the presidency, causing the Supreme Court to invalidate his presidential mandate.

Yes, just like any of us if people spend millions digging into our past, they are likely to find unsavory dirts in it, President Tinubu as a youngster, probably due to the circumstance of his birth, has some deep secrets he has kept for so long. This is pure speculation on my path since I have no evidence to back it up. But there are many missing gaps in his biography to justify my speculation. What is emerging however, about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a story of resilience, overcoming impossible odds, and rising from grass to unbelievable grace. It is probably a story if properly packaged that would make him a more sympathetic and more inspirational personality. But the secrets are so long and so entrenched it is too late in the day to undo them. They are the kind of secrets one takes to the grave.

Atiku and his associates are hoping for a miracle. Cases are won and lost based on the strength of one’s evidence and legal theory. It is hard under normal circumstances to win an appeal, it is doubly so in this instance given the high stakes involved. Never in the history of Nigeria and very rare in the global stage has a presidential election been overturned by the highest court. Alhaji Atiku and his team are hoping against hope to sway the justices by throwing as much dirt at President Tinubu to force them to invalidate his mandate. They are going to fail spectacularly. The final verdict on the Nigerian 2023 presidential election will not be rendered on social media but on the hallow hallway of the Supreme Court.