The curtains fell, last week, on Atiku Abubakar’s spirited bid to have the courts overturn the February 23 election of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office. The prayer of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate that he be declared winner of the presidential election ran into a brick wall as a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, threw out the appeal for lacking in merit.
With that submission, the contention over the poll has finally been laid to rest but the fireworks from Atiku and the PDP are yet to abate. They have stridently denigrated the ruling, describing it as denying Nigerians of the good leadership they deserve. The party, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the judgment as unexpected while Atiku alleged that the Nigerian judiciary had been sabotaged and undermined by a dictatorial cabal. He further described his loss at the court as a nail put on the coffin of the democratic gains made by Nigeria since 1999.
The APC, on the other hand, has been exultant in its celebration of Buhari’s victory, which it described as apt, and a victory for democracy and the rule of law. It also used the opportunity to chide Atiku and the PDP to relent from their “destructive and disruptive agenda.” It advised that the opposition, much as the government, must now move on without the need for further distractions. It is good that the contention over Buhari’s re-election has finally been laid to rest. I commend Atiku and the PDP for their very robust campaign to retrieve what they believed to be their stolen mandate. Their decision to stay within the rule of law in their pursuit of their supposed mandate is a wise one.
Even now that the Supreme Court has given its verdict, beyond the initial doubts cast on the independence of the judiciary, Atiku and the PDP should look beyond the election to the important task of providing a virile opposition to keep Buhari’s APC government on its toes, to keep it in check. This is not the time for unhelpful inflammatory statements and intrigues that could further destabilize or distract the government.
Both the APC government and the leading opposition party and its flag bearer should be able to keep the ultimate goal of politicking and democracy, which is the good of the people, in view. What the nation needs now is constructive engagement and cooperation with the ruling party to move the nation forward.
Legally, there are no more options available to the opposition other than to contribute its quota of ideas to national development and to begin strategizing for the battle for the highest office in the land in 2023. The failure of Atiku in 2019 does not mean he cannot contest and still win the presidential poll in 2023. After all, the incumbent, Buhari, had himself contested for the position a number of times before he eventually got it. With continued focus on the office and the tasks required to attain it, combined with the grace of God, the 2023 poll is up for grabs by any individual or political party that is able to pay the price of contesting and winning the election. The task of getting the nation back on track and onto the next level is one that requires the concentration of the government and the cooperation of all. It is one that requires all hands on deck if the ultimate objectives of the nation are to be achieved. Even though it is not unexpected that the failed bid to get the 2019 poll repealed would generate some bitterness in the losing party, but the people’s larger interest should be the propelling force for all our leaders, at all times. There are just too many things to do and further bickering on the poll is unnecessary. Throwing tantrums on the integrity or otherwise of the Supreme Court justices cannot change the verdict of the court.
I congratulate Buhari and the APC on this victory. They should seize the opportunity given to them by this judgment to refocus attention on the task at hand. About six months have already passed since the inauguration of the president’s second term. Time runs fast. This is the time for the government to rev up the engine of its service delivery in all sectors so that Nigerians can begin to feel, in earnest, the gains of their democracy.
Murder on the road
There are so many problems that make Nigeria’s roads unsafe, and many of them are well known to road travellers. There are dangerous potholes which, if care is not taken, can throw vehicles off balance and into the bush or, worse still, a river or a gully. In recent years, armed robbers have become another source of great danger on the roads. Gone are past decades when motorists travelled safely and joyfully without a care in the world on our interstate expressways. Those were the days when some people relished and would boast about the joys of travelling in the night when the roads were free and the weather was cool.
Not anymore. In the last decade or so, the fear of armed robbers has made night travelling a risky venture. Only the brave and those who appear not to care about their personal safety have been enjoying such adventures. In the last five years or so, the fear of kidnappers has joined the list of dangers on our expressways. Even in broad daylight, both kidnappers and armed robbers can strike at will, carting away human beings into the forests for their relatives to bid for their release with cash, as if purchasing cattle in the market.
The police have for many years also sometimes been a risk factor on our roads. Although they are largely deployed to protect road users, they sometimes constitute a danger as their efforts to extort money from motorists, or to stop motorists for checks, sometimes result in tragedies. And, not a few Nigerians have lost their lives to both stray and well targeted police bullets on our expressways.
But, at no time in the country has the sight of the men of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) seriously elicited a fear of death. Maybe a fear of delay. Maybe harassment. On rare occasions, extortion of motorists. Maybe seizure of documents. Maybe erring motorists may be asked to come to FRSC office to watch long-winding videos on road safety to cure them of their penchant for over-speeding.
But not anymore. People can actually now also live in fear of death in the hands of a few unscrupulous FRSC men. It is nothing but shocking reading of the murder of a motorist, Odion Omafo Samuel, by men of the FRSC around Okhuaihe Hill along Benin-Agbor road on October 14. The man was killed by four named FRSC officials for telling the driver of a vehicle that he hired to convey him somewhere not to yield to the FRSC officials’ efforts to collect a bribe from him. The angry FRSC men therefore beat Odion to stupor and took him to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The FRSC officials thereafter buried him in a bush and, but for the fact that the driver of the hired car was arrested for kidnapping Odion, they would have gotten away with the crime.
The driver’s report led to the arrest of the FRSC men and they confessed to burying Odion in a shallow grave in the bush. They accused him of snatching their booking tickets. This extra-judicial killing by the FRSC men is unfortunate. The men should be made to account for their crime. These men need all the disciplinary measures that can be visited on them to send a strong message that the FRSC is not a killing force. They have dented the sober and responsible image that FRSC has built over the years for improving safety on our roads. A proper prosecution and adjudication of their case should be used to send a strong message that the FRSC has no room for such bestial conduct by its officers.
THISDAY
