Atiku Abubakar. |
Presidential
candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential elections
Atiku Abubakar has taken the verdict of the Supreme Court with equanimity, even
as he said that the judgment is a “nail on the coffin and
the gains we collectively made since 1999 are evaporating, and a requiem is at
hand.”
Atiku in a
statement today, Wednesday, October 30, 2019 said: “It
is said that the Supreme Court is not final because it is infallible, but that
it is infallible because it is final. While I believe that only God is
infallible everywhere, and only Nigerians are infallible in our democracy, I
must accept that the judicial route I chose to take, as a democrat, has come to
a conclusion.
“Whether justice was done, is left to the Nigerian
people to decide. As a democrat, I fought a good fight for the Nigerian people.
I will keep on fighting for Nigeria and for democracy, and also for justice.
“I thank all Nigerians who have stayed the course
since the commencement of trial in the petition on the February 23 presidential
election.”
See full text of Atiku’s statement
PRESS
RELEASE
Supreme
Court Judgement, Part of our Democratic Challenges
It is said that the Supreme Court is not final because
it is infallible, but that it is infallible because it is final. While I
believe that only God is infallible everywhere, and only Nigerians are
infallible in our democracy, I must accept that the judicial route I chose to
take, as a democrat, has come to a conclusion.
Whether justice was done, is left to the Nigerian
people to decide. As a democrat, I fought a good fight for the Nigerian people.
I will keep on fighting for Nigeria and for democracy, and also for justice.
I thank all Nigerians who have stayed the course since
the commencement of trial in the petition on the February 23 presidential
election.
The judgment is
part of democratic challenges we must face as a nation.
The Nigerian judiciary, just like every estate of our
realm, has been sabotaged and undermined by an overreaching and dictatorial
cabal, who have undone almost all the democratic progress the Peoples Democratic
Party and its administrations nurtured for sixteen years, up until 2015.
Can Nigeria continue like this? Recently, former
United States Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield,
averred that Nigeria had rolled back the democratic gains she made in 2015.
When democracy is rolled back, the economy, the society and the judiciary will
not be far behind. Today, the nail has been put on the coffin and the gains we
collectively made since 1999 are evaporating, and a requiem is at hand.
In a democracy, you need a strong judiciary, a free
press and an impartial electoral umpire. Nigeria has none of those three
elements as at today.
One man, one woman, one youth, one vote, should be the
only way to make gains in a democracy. And when that is thwarted, the clock
starts to tick.
Two and a half millennia ago, Sophocles said “If we
are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: “Thou shalt not
ration justice.” Nigeria will do well to observe this warning.
To those who think they have broken my spirit, I am
sorry to disappoint you. I am too focused on Nigeria to think about myself. I
gave up that luxury twenty years ago. The question is not if I am broken. The
question is if Nigeria is whole?
This is not a time for too many words. It will suffice
for me to remind Nigeria of this - we are an independent nation and we are the
architects of our fate. If we do not build a free Nigeria, we may end up
destroying her, and God forbid that that should be the case.
I was a democrat, I am a democrat, and I will always
continue to be a democrat. May God bless Nigeria.
30th October 2019
Atiku Abubakar
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999-2007.
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