Supreme Court Verdict:
Presidency, APC Knock Obi
‘This Is Not The End’, Obi Tells Supporters
..Proposes Five-Year Single Tenure For Presidential Office
…Obi Now Castigates Judicial Verdict He Once Benefited From – Presidency
….. Inability to differentiate between public opinion and reality your greatest undoing APC tells Obi
The candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, on Monday, said his dream for a new Nigeria has not ended with the October 26, 2023 verdict of the Supreme Court.
Obi spoke at a press conference in Abuja about two weeks after the apex court affirmed the February 25, 2023, electoral victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Obi, who faulted the judgement of the apex court, however, agreed that the end has come to the legal battle of the last election.
Addressing his supporters popularly known as ‘Obidients’, the former governor of Anambra State said a destination is not an event but a journey.
Although the 62-year-old businessman, who addressed the media alongside his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, did not explicitly disclose whether he would run for President again in 2027, he said the end has not come for his journey for a new Nigeria.
Obi appreciated “the energy and dedication of Nigerian youths and the Obidient movement”.
He said, “I want to assure them that this is not the end of our journey but in fact the beginning. Nigerians heard you, the world has taken note and we will not forget easily. We shall endure, and persist until we reach our destination because new Nigeria is our destination. A destination is not an event.”
Obi and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, had challenged the victory of Tinubu in the last election up to the apex court.
Not satisfied with the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) earlier in September, Atiku and Obi approached the Supreme Court seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s election on the grounds of double nomination, alleged certificate forgery, non-transmission of results electronically, 25% votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), amongst others.
However, penultimate Thursday, the Justice John Okoro-led panel of the apex court threw out all the appeals by Atiku and Obi for lacking merit. The panel thereafter upheld the electoral victory of Tinubu.
Obi Now Castigates Judicial Verdict He Once Benefited From – Presidency
The Presidency on Monday threw a jibe at the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, saying that the businessman once benefited from judicial pronouncements when he reclaimed his mandate as governor of Anambra State in 2007 but he now castigates the same when the Supreme Court ruled in the favour of President Bola Tinubu on October 26, 2023.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made this known in a statement hours after Obi faulted the Supreme Court verdict which affirmed the electoral victory of Tinubu, the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25, 2023 poll.
“We are at a loss as to how the copy-cat Obi and his faction of Labour Party convinced themselves they won an election in which they came a distant third,” Onanuga said.
“At the press conference where he tried, in vain, to gaslight Nigerians with false claims and innuendos, Mr. Obi contradicted himself. Here was a beneficiary of judicial pronouncements in the past now castigating the same court because its judgment did not go his way.”
Onanuga said Obi and his party should know that the Supreme Court or any other court does not give judgment based on public opinion and mob sentiments. “Judicial pronouncements are based on evidence, precedents and the rule of law,” he said.
The presidential aide said the ex-governor of Anambra should quit criticisms and congratulate Tinubu.
“Having admitted that the Supreme Court ruling brought an end to litigation and any challenge to the bona-fide of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the validly elected leader of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Obi should have congratulated President Tinubu for his victory and pledge his support, in the spirit of statesmanship.”
The Presidency also welcomed Obi and his party to play the role of the opposition and start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027.
“We hope by then he would campaign on issues and not whip up religious and ethnic sentiments as he did in the last campaign.”
APC to Obi: Inability to differentiate between public opinion and reality your greatest undoing
The All Progressives Congress (APC) says the inability of Peter Obi to differentiate between public opinion and reality was his “greatest undoing” during the general election.
Reacting in a statement by Felix Morka, its national publicity secretary, the APC described Obi’s remarks on the court ruling as “grouchy”.
The APC accused Obi of having “a haughty sense of entitlement”, adding that he was deluded by the “mass hysteria” of his supporters.
“At his Press Conference earlier today, November 6, 2023, Obi, again blamed our democratic institutions, particularly the courts for not awarding him victory – not because he won the election, not because he proved his case in court as required by law but because he is Peter Obi,” the APC said.
“That haughty sense of entitlement seems to pervade his vitriolic attack on our institutions.
“Mr Obi’s gross inability to distinguish between his warped version of public opinion and reality has been his greatest undoing throughout the electioneering season.
“Taken by the mass hysteria of his vociferous netizens and fringe supporters, Mr Obi ensconced himself in alternate reality, a parallel political universe of self delusion.
“As someone who has previously benefited from the rulings of the Supreme Court on electoral matters, Obi’s acerbic attack on the judiciary only belies his arrogance and vainness.
“When the same courts previously decided in his favor, the courts were beacons of democracy. Now that the decisions are against him, all of a sudden, the courts have betrayed democracy.
“Mr Obi, it cannot always be about you. It must always be about our country. Cases are not won on public opinion, they are won on evidence and the law. You failed on both counts.”
The APC urged Obi and the LP to engage opposition politics “maturely and constructively”, and to contribute to the task of building a safer and stronger Nigeria.
