The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has responded to the recent “State of the Nation” address given by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, where he (Atiku) condemned the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a widely circulated statement issued on Tuesday, the APC chieftain faulted Atiku’s address for “ its disregard for the truth
and patent misrepresentations,” saying “ it will go down in
political history as a classic of self-incrimination.”
According to Tinubu, “Atiku thinks the piece exalts him. Instead it evinces
his penchant for willful misstatement that make him
unfit for the office he now seeks and has always
coveted.”
Tinubu stated further, “In the statement, he claims to have dedicated all his
life to the defense of democracy. Those of you who
know him, and even those who don’t, know this is
not true. If all of his life has been dedicated to
support for democracy, then he is far too young to
run for president; however, I must congratulate him
for having somehow managed to find or begin a
second life. This rebirth as a defender of democracy
must have taken place only a few short hours ago.
“His previous life of over seventy years was one of
skirting democracy and of blatant impunity in
attempting to enshrine reactionary government and
installing an unjust political economy on the backs
of the people.
“In his address, he claims the nation has entered a
difficult moment. To my dear and good friend Atiku,
I say the difficulty is not so much with the moment
but with your memory.
“When you lorded over Nigeria in tandem with
President Obasanjo, there were myriad court orders
mandating that your government render to Lagos
state the funds due it to improve the lives of its
millions of inhabitants. Instead, you gladly and
without dispute joined Obasanjo in utter disregard
for these unambiguous legal verdicts. In so doing,
you demeaned the rule of law. You also readily
sacrificed the economic development and welfare
of millions of innocent people in Lagos just to gain
some illicit political advantage that proved to be
fleeting and of no avail to you in the end.
“You now speak of democracy and the need for
executive restraint. But such verbal finery never
crossed your lips or traversed your pen when you
and Obasanjo improperly removed Senate
Presidents more easily than a trendy cad exchanges
a pair of shoes or changes the subject of his false
affections. Your love for democracy is such that you
were recently observed apologising to the PDP for
not rigging the Lagos 2003 gubernatorial polls as
you did the polls in the other Southwestern states.
“Instead of repenting for rigging at least five states
too many, your expressed regret was that you had
not rigged enough; that you rigged one state less
than the complete mauling of democracy your party
and your principal had mandated. Regarding such a
destructive love as this, I am sure democracy and
fair elections would rather do without.
“A few weeks ago in a televised broadcast you even
revealed to the people that your official policy
envisioned the base enrichment of your friends
should you achieve the presidency.
I must assume that your lifetime as a defender of
democracy began after this long record of unjust
deeds and even after your latest statement of
intent to mould Nigeria into an oligarchy. If this is
not the case and if all these things you have done
and said are consistent with your current notion of
democracy, then there is but one conclusion. The
democracy you now claim to support remains a
rather strange breed of democracy, such as to be
nigh indistinguishable from the regressive, rentier
political economy you designed and foisted on
Nigeria as the crafty lieutenant of the bullish
Obasanjo.
“Strange that you would choose to depict the
current situation so inaccurately as to stir emotions
unduly. You claim that CJN Onnoghen has been
removed. However, this is not so. He has been
temporarily suspended. You and your advisors
should know and recognize the vast legal difference
between “suspension” and “removal.” Yet you
persist in conflating the two in what you say is a
pursuit of justice. While true you may be in pursuit
of something. It is not justice.
“If justice was your goal, you would acknowledge
that the CJN has only been temporarily suspended
not permanently removed. Thus, your recourse to
saying that the president violated the constitutional
provision regarding the removal of a CJN is
inaccurate in that Buhari never intended to remove
the CJN. What he has done is to have the CJN
temporarily get out of his chair so that the serious
matters against him can be heard by someone other
than himself. Should the charges show themselves
to be wrong or unproven, the CJN will be
automatically reinstated as the head of the Nigerian
judiciary. However, for Atiku to state that the CJN
should remain on seat while credible and grave
charges swirl around him is to put the entire
workings of the Supreme Court under a heavy
cloud.
“It is ironic that Atiku of all people throw such darts
at President Buhari. Buhari actually exercised
considerable restraint in this matter. He has
reasonably balanced concerns about the integrity of
the judiciary with concerns for the individual rights
of the accused. Nothing has been taken from the
CJN that cannot be restored if the facts warrant
such restoration. Thus, President Buhari
conditionally suspended the CJN. By doing so, this
allows for the case to move forward without the
CCT or others fearing the CJN might use his position
to unduly interfere with proceedings. If the CJN is
exonerated, then he will return to his position. If
not exonerated, then a more permanent discipline
awaits him.
“This is an imminently fair and balanced approach,
especially given the fact that the constitution and
other laws really do not provide clear and
unambiguous guidance in how to proceed in a case
whether the CJN is the defendant under this unique
fact pattern. While Atiku rails against Buhari
because of this act of restraint, we can but imagine
the tack Chief Obasanjo and Atiku would have taken
if they presided over this situation. By now, they
would have put CJN Onnoghen in the stocks or
shipped him off to that infamous farm in Ota where
he would have begun his new career in plucking
poultry.
“It is curious that Atiku would take up the marker of
a jurist who has enjoyed the sweet but hidden
benefits of several million dollars of mystery money
passing through his secret bank accounts, Even
when discovered, these accounts held several
hundred thousands of dollars in them.
“Someone in Atiku’s position would normally be
wary of a judge thusly tainted. A politician in Atiku’s
position should more objectively be concerned that
the government would have been the source of the
hidden funds or that government would use the
fact of the clandestine money as leverage against
the judge to make sure he did government’s bidding
for surely this a jurist highly compromised by
pecuniary indiscretion. It is almost unnatural that an
opposition candidate would champion the soiled
cause of such a judge who seems to have sold
something in exchange for the money found in his
vest’s secret pockets.
“Yet, Atiku now cries the anguished cry of a man who
thought he had won the lottery only to find he had
misread the last number on his claim ticket. Or
perhaps these are the tears of a man who thought
he had invested in a sure deal only to see the
reason for the investment evaporate before his very
eyes. Now, Atiku and his cohort seek to turn their
personal disappointment into a burning national
issue. They seek to manufacture a constitutional
crisis where none exists.
“They said they suspended their campaign because
of this matter. Here, they are as illogical as illogic
can beget. By suspending their campaign, did that
mean they were permanently ending it? Of course
not! That would be a boycott or the permanent
“removal” of the campaign. No, they have resumed
their campaign after temporarily suspending it. If
they know the meaning of suspend in this regard,
only malign intent allows them to feign ignorance to
the meaning of the word “suspend” when applied
to CJN Onnoghen.
“There is no need to quake at the solitary incident of
the interim suspension of a justice pending the legal
resolution of serious criminal claims against him. If
this matter is shorn of the political trappings it has
acquired, there is no fairer way to handle the
matter.
“Atiku, I gather, would rather leave the man in seat
and allow the charges against him to go
unattended. Or Atiku would rather that the CJN
preside over his own trial. Such is the logical
conclusion of Atiku’s position. It is an odd bravery
that would lead Atiku to stake such a position. If
Atiku is as oddly courageous as he now depicts,
then let him venture a step further. Pray tell, let
Atiku tell us what good and precious thing he and
the PDP rendered that they cannot even
countenance the temporary and conditional
suspension of a single jurist until the charges of
illegality against the man have been fully resolved in
open proceedings conducted by his judicial peers.
“Atiku claims to be a democrat and defender of
democracy, but where was he, his voice and action
during Abacha’s suffocating maximum rule? Was
he not a member and cheer-leader of one of the
five Abacha parties aptly described then as five
leprous fingers of Abacha? Did he even have the
courage to visit his mentor, late Major General
Shehu Musa Yar Ádua, in jail for fear of Abacha
stopping him from running for the governorship of
Adamawa?
“Dare Atiku say what is really upsetting him and
what he really is hiding in his attempt to cloak his
lifetime of undemocratic reckonings in the
swaddling of this much too belated democratic
second birth he now claims for himself.”