Sokoto: Tambuwal must tame his utterances
By Baba Shuaibu
The mentality of Nigerians, especially public officeholders, is hard to understand. Who would agree that no less personality than Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who is former Speaker of the House of Representatives and governor of Sokoto state for eight years would enliven an issue that had been buried by the highest court in the land, that is to say, raising issues in Sokoto guber election that had been dusted by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
It surprised Nigerians for a man on his way to becoming an elder stateman to ridicule his country’s legal system.
Recall that the PDP, after two laborious attempts at the election petition tribunal and the appeal court, suffered the same fate at the apex court which gave the victory to Dr Ahmad Aliyu of APC.
A case that had been decided by the apex court should have been closed for good.
It’s of great worry and concern to Nigerians that a former speaker should refer to such a victory as a stolen mandate. It means that he has no confidence in the Nigerian justice system; the law and justice he is one of most important beneficiaries.
The supreme court’s panel, led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, had dismissed the appeal filed against Dr Aliyu’s victory by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Saidu Umar.
The apex court held that the appeal lacked merit. Before then the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Dr Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the 18 March governorship election.
Therefore, Tambuwal’s utterance was the continuation of the PDP’s legal battle against Dr Aliyu at the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal. He had unsuccessfully called on the tribunal to declare him as the valid winner of the election. When the prospect of victory was dim, he applied the Samson option and asked the court to declare the election inconclusive and order a re-run.
But the tribunal, in its judgement delivered in September 2023, dismissed Mr Umar’s petition for lacking in merit.
Dissatisfied, the PDP candidate headed to the Appeal Court to challenge Aliyu’s hard-earned victory at the Guber poll. As expectedly the Appeal Court affirmed the election of Dr Aliyu.
But bent on pulling down the popular candidate, the appellant further approached the Supreme Court to challenge the outcome of the poll once more.
However, delivering its judgement, the Supreme Court held that it had no reason to tamper with the concurrent decisions of both the election tribunal and the Court of Appeal. Thus went on to dismiss the appeal and affirmed Governor Aliyu’s election, and the case was closed for good.
It therefore, surprised Nigerians for a man on his way to becoming an elder statesman to ridicule his country’s legal system.
It is no wonder the state government has slammed him over the claim that the PDP was robbed of victory in the 2023 governorship election in the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Information, Sambo Danchadi, said the PDP must be deluded to imagine that it won the 2023 poll in the state. This opinion of the commissioner that Tambuwal and PDP were suffering from self-delusion is most appropriate.
It is of interest to note that PDP only won the majority of votes in five local government areas out of the 23 local government areas in the state. If so then where is the assumed victory?
Fortunately, the APC not only won the election but had justified its victory because it was dragged through the gamut of Nigeria’s legal system.
The opposition, methinks, is afraid of Gov Aliyu’s soaring popularity in the areas of the people’s welfare, security and unprecedented infrastructural development.
Now some of the sokoto people who had voted for PDP have realised their mistake. The state is now more secure for businesses to strive. Therefore, sending the PDP out of the Sokoto Government House is one of the best things that happened to Sokoto in 2023 because Gov Aliyu’s achievements in this short period can compete favourably with the eight year PDP government under Tambuwal.
We therefore appeal to the opposition political parties to rally round Dr Aliyu to build the state of our dream.
The nearly one year in office of Gov Aliyu has shown that the voters in Sokoto have not erred in his choice because his progressive policies and programmes has earned him an enviable place in the annals of sokoto governance. We ask Tambuwal to save his tears over spilt milk.
Malam Baba Shuaibu writes from Sokoto