Group To Atiku: Clear Your Citizenship Question Before Tackling Tinubu

By Eneole Otorkpa, Abuja

A rights group, The Progressive Counsel (TPC), has sneered at ongoing moves by the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to dig up “a non-existent case of drug conviction against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

The group, mostly composed of human rights lawyers, forensic auditors and  policy analysts, yesterday rose from a meeting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, challenging the former VP first to clear the citizenship question before tackling Tinubu.

In a statement titled, “Atiku Must Face the Constitutional Mirror”, signed by the convener, Maiyegun Oloriegbe, the TPC scoffed at Atiku’s hanging query as to whether he is a Nigerian or a Cameroonian, while he is busy dissipating energies on drug accusation against President Tinubu.

“Before Atiku Abubakar challenges President Tinubu’s eligibility for 2027, by digging up a non-existent case of drug conviction against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he must first answer the citizenship question hanging over his own head,” the group said.

According to the TPC, Section 131 of the Constitution is clear, stating that a presidential candidate must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth, not by later incorporation, but by birth.

Tracing the roots of the ADC presidential candidate “as verified” and as stated in his authorised biography, “Atiku: The Story of Atiku Abubakar”, published by Africana Legacy Press in 2006, the group stated that “Atiku Abubakar was born in 1946 in Jada, then part of British Cameroons.”

“That territory only joined Nigeria after the 1961 plebiscite.

“The serious legal question of whether this makes him a citizen by birth under the Constitution was taken to the Federal High Court in Abuja.

“The suit was aborted on procedural grounds, including the issue of locus standi.

“It was not a ruling on the merits that every constitutional doubt had been extinguished.”

Arguing further, the TPC stated, “Yet the same Atiku now races to court to put Tinubu under the microscope.  “He demands forensic examination of the President’s documents, records and history. Fine.

Let the courts hear him. “But justice is not a one-way street; the man who demands the microscope must stand under it himself.

“If Tinubu’s past can be investigated, investigate Atiku’s. If Tinubu’s academic and foreign records can be dissected, dissect Atiku’s.

“If Tinubu’s eligibility can be litigated, Atiku’s can be litigated with equal force.” The body stressed that there is no constitutional immunity for Atiku Abubakar that warrants any delay in obtaining a legal determination of his citizenship status.

“No special protection for the serial challenger; the same Constitution applies to both men, or it applies to neither.

“President Tinubu is not above the law. Neither is he beneath it.

“An American document is not a Nigerian judgment. An allegation is not proof. A FOIA disclosure is not an automatic disqualification. Political repetition does not create constitutional fact,” the TPC clarified.

Besides, the group noted that “Nigeria cannot afford a 2027 election that becomes a permanent courthouse campaign.”

It warned that it serves a reasonable purpose for Nigerians to start debating on the economy, security, jobs, infrastructure and leadership, not  endless mud-slinging lawsuits.

“Litigation has its place, but it must not replace political persuasion. “Atiku has every right to challenge Tinubu, but he has no right to demand that only Tinubu faces the constitutional mirror while his own credentials remain untouchable.

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander; equality before the law is not optional.

“Let the Constitution speak. Let the evidence speak. Let the courts speak. And let Nigerians decide at the ballot box, not through selective outrage and perpetual judicial harassment of a President whose mandate has already been tested.

“No candidate is above the Constitution. No candidate is beneath its protection. And no opponent should be allowed to weaponise the courts indefinitely against the man who won. Atiku wants Tinubu under the microscope. Very well. Let Atiku step in front of it first,” the TPC quipped.