BY LINUS CHIBUIKE
ATTORNEY-GENERAL of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has argued that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will be violating Section 118(1)(k) of the Electoral Act if he contests for President in Nigeria.
He argued that, since he was allegedly not born a Nigerian or by Nigerian parents, he was not eligible under the constitution to be a Presidential candidate, having not met the provisions of Sections 25(1) &(2) and 131(a) of the constitution.
The AGF was arguing in support of a suit filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja by the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa.
EMA is challenging the eligibility of the former VP to contest for President and asking the court to hold, among others, that considering the provisions of sections 25(1) &(2) and 131(a) of the constitution and the circumstances surrounding his birth, Atiku cannot contest for President in Nigeria.
A team of lawyers, led by Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN), in documents filed on behalf of the AGF, agreed that the plaintiff, Atiku Abubakar, is not a Nigerian citizen by birth.
The suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/177/2019 was filed before the 2019 presidential election.
When the suit was mentioned on March 15, Justice Inyang Ekwo said it was ripe for hearing and fixed May 4, for the hearing.
In the affidavit, the AGF said, “The first defendant (Atiku) is not qualified to contest to be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The first defendant is not a fit and proper person to be a candidate for election to the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The first defendant was born on the 25th of November, 1946 at Jada, at the time in Northern Cameroon. By the plebiscite of 1961, the town of Jada was incorporated into Nigeria. The first defendant is a Nigerian by virtue of the 1961 plebiscite, but not a Nigerian by birth. The first defendant’s parents died before the 1961 plebiscite.”
He added that the effect of the June1, 1961 plebiscite was to have the people of Northern Cameroon integrated into Nigeria as new citizens of the country, even after Nigeria’s independence.
“This qualified all those born before the 1961 plebiscIte as citizens of Nigeria, but not Nigerian citizen by birth. Consequently, only citizens born after the 1961 plebiscite are citizens of Nigeria by birth,” Malami said.
Citing provisions of the 1960, 1963, 1979 and 1999 constitutions, he said the “reasoning of the lawmakers in ensuring that the persons to be the President of Nigeria is a citizen of Nigeria by birth is because such a person is the number one citizen and the image of the Nigerian state.”
The AGF noted that, where it was revealed that a person was born outside Nigeria before Nigeria’s independence in 1960, in a location which was never part of Nigeria until June 1, 1961, “as it is in this case, such a person cannot claim citizenship of Nigeria by birth.”
“This is even more so where his parents do not belong to any tribe indigenous to Nigeria until their death. The facts of his (Atiku’s) birth on the Cameroonian territory to Cameroonian parents remain unchallenged.
“At best, the first defendant can only acquire Nigerian citizenship by the 1961 plebiscite. The citizenship qualifications under Section 26 and 27 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), by implication, has limited the first defendant’s privileges or rights and cannot be equal or proportional to the privileges of other citizens who acquire their citizenship status by birth.
“This would include the legal preclusion of the first defendant from contesting for the office of the President of Nigeria,” the AGF argued.
He said the only situation where Atiku could have acquired Nigerian citizenship by birth under the 1999 Constitution was if both or either of his parents and grand parents were Nigerian citizens by birth.
