Nigeria: Peter Obi's Miscalculation or Forthrightness?
21 May 2023 By Abiodun Kareem Giwa
Nigeria's President-Elect Bola Tinubu, and the two challengers of his election, Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi. (Courtesy: KemiFilani.ng)
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate in a recently concluded election in Nigeria, reportedly said the United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's phone call to the Nigerian President-Elect Bola Tinubu was unacceptable. He said Blinken should allow the court to decide Nigeria's president. Blinken's office noted the call to Nigeria's president-elect is a continuation of the relationship between Nigeria and the U.S.
Observers are appalled at how Obi thinks he has the authority to decide how other countries such as the U.S. conduct foreign affairs. Obi believes, judging from his statement, the election in Nigeria needs to be conclusive. Does it mean Obi's legal challenge of election results invalidates the results announced and the election inconclusive? Is Obi's legal recourse not to invalidate the results from a concluded election? Has the court invalidated the results? Why cannot Obi wait for the court's decision?
And, of course, courts don't usually decide elections. An umpire like the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, does. And people say you cannot be an applicant and a judge at the same time, when you go to court challenging an election result.
In another vein, observers say Obi's fight over election results in Nigeria should not be with any foreign country. Instead, it should be with the Nigerian government. They say his statement that there are enough reports about election irregularities and manipulations to distance the world's beacon of democracy from accepting the election results in Nigeria amounts to a tantrum, giving Blinken's call to the president-elect 11 days before the expected presidential inauguration.
The U.S. may have been tactical in response to developments in Nigeria. If President Joseph Biden formally congratulated Bola Tinubu after the elections need to be clarified. Blinken's call may have been a means to close the gap with Tinubu ahead of the inauguration. The U.S. government watches political developments in countries with bilateral relations and will avoid anything capable of impairing the relationship. Any person aspiring to lead a country should understand diplomacy. Secondly, winning an election is not a matter of life and death to disrupt the security and lives of the populace in a country. Hardly there is any country without election irregularities and accusations of rigging. Losers in elections don't become saints teaching others what should have been or what should be. It is common for a candidate with a large following to lose an election from mistakes that should guard future participation.
Obi was the same person who went to London telling his listeners at a birthday gathering that it would satisfy him if the outgoing vice president emerged as the flag bearer for the ruling party according to the Punch Newspaper. According to him, the reason is that he wants a younger and more muscular fellow able to confront the country's problems. Is that why he is in court challenging the election results? Certainly not. He is in court because he says he has the highest number of votes, but the umpire places him in the third position, which means the referee has favored the winner and the runner-up. So, he is challenging both the winner and the runner-up. He has moved from winning the highest number and sticking with Tinubu's lack of 25 percent of the votes in Abuja.
The runner-up, Abubakar Atiku, whose party splintered before the election, allowing five governors from his fold to enable the ruling party, is also challenging the results separately. The court asked whether the two cases be made one. Before that, the applicants sought the court to allow television cameras in the courtroom, wasting days on an issue observers consider irrelevant, and the court rejected it. The presidential inauguration is seven days away. The court will resume Monday over whether to join the two applicants' separate cases into one. And their lawyers, as of Friday, have yet to agree on the court's resolution.
And a day after will be six days before the inauguration. Obi has said he could still be Nigeria's president based on past precedents of him having been governor twice through a court's decision.
Observers are appalled at how Obi thinks he has the authority to decide how other countries such as the U.S. conduct foreign affairs. Obi believes, judging from his statement, the election in Nigeria needs to be conclusive. Does it mean Obi's legal challenge of election results invalidates the results announced and the election inconclusive? Is Obi's legal recourse not to invalidate the results from a concluded election? Has the court invalidated the results? Why cannot Obi wait for the court's decision?
And, of course, courts don't usually decide elections. An umpire like the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, does. And people say you cannot be an applicant and a judge at the same time, when you go to court challenging an election result.
In another vein, observers say Obi's fight over election results in Nigeria should not be with any foreign country. Instead, it should be with the Nigerian government. They say his statement that there are enough reports about election irregularities and manipulations to distance the world's beacon of democracy from accepting the election results in Nigeria amounts to a tantrum, giving Blinken's call to the president-elect 11 days before the expected presidential inauguration.
The U.S. may have been tactical in response to developments in Nigeria. If President Joseph Biden formally congratulated Bola Tinubu after the elections need to be clarified. Blinken's call may have been a means to close the gap with Tinubu ahead of the inauguration. The U.S. government watches political developments in countries with bilateral relations and will avoid anything capable of impairing the relationship. Any person aspiring to lead a country should understand diplomacy. Secondly, winning an election is not a matter of life and death to disrupt the security and lives of the populace in a country. Hardly there is any country without election irregularities and accusations of rigging. Losers in elections don't become saints teaching others what should have been or what should be. It is common for a candidate with a large following to lose an election from mistakes that should guard future participation.
Obi was the same person who went to London telling his listeners at a birthday gathering that it would satisfy him if the outgoing vice president emerged as the flag bearer for the ruling party according to the Punch Newspaper. According to him, the reason is that he wants a younger and more muscular fellow able to confront the country's problems. Is that why he is in court challenging the election results? Certainly not. He is in court because he says he has the highest number of votes, but the umpire places him in the third position, which means the referee has favored the winner and the runner-up. So, he is challenging both the winner and the runner-up. He has moved from winning the highest number and sticking with Tinubu's lack of 25 percent of the votes in Abuja.
The runner-up, Abubakar Atiku, whose party splintered before the election, allowing five governors from his fold to enable the ruling party, is also challenging the results separately. The court asked whether the two cases be made one. Before that, the applicants sought the court to allow television cameras in the courtroom, wasting days on an issue observers consider irrelevant, and the court rejected it. The presidential inauguration is seven days away. The court will resume Monday over whether to join the two applicants' separate cases into one. And their lawyers, as of Friday, have yet to agree on the court's resolution.
And a day after will be six days before the inauguration. Obi has said he could still be Nigeria's president based on past precedents of him having been governor twice through a court's decision.
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