Presidential election: Northern leaders seek compromise between Buhari, Atiku

FOLLOWING the raging claims and counter-claims over the outcome of the presidential poll, northern leaders have initiated moves to reach out to President Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for a possible compromise.

Accordingly, a committee of highly respected Northern elders, traditional rulers and religious leaders is said to be in consideration, so that it could meet with Buhari and Atiku very soon.

The committee, whose members are not to be made public, will start work before the gubernatorial and state assembly elections on Saturday, it was learnt.

The Northern establishment, Sunday Tribune gathered, has been expressing worries over the dispute between Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku, the standard-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the result of the poll.

Buhari was declared re-elected having polled 15,191,847 votes, winning in 19 states, to defeat other 72 candidates, including Atiku, who scored 11, 255,978 votes and won 17 states and the FCT.

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But a coalition of ethnic-based socio-cultural organisations in the Northern and Southern zones of the country under the aegis of the Forum of Nigerian Leaders and Elders (TFNLE), on Saturday, declared its support for Atiku’s resolve to challenge results of the election in the court as provided for in the constitution, describing his decision as patriotic, responsible and ultimately the highest contribution to the democratic system.

The Forum, comprising Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), expressed this support in a statement signed by their leaders, including Chief E. K. Clark, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief John Nwodo and Dr. Pogu Bitrus.

This was just as the Forum, while commending what it termed the statesmanship and commitment to the democratic process of the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku, noted that in situation such as this “some other person would by now be soaking ‘baboons and dogs in blood.’”

It will be recalled that about 24 hours after the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, declared Buhari winner of the election, the PDP candidate, Atiku held a world press conference rejecting the outcome of election.

Citing gross irregularities in the February 23 presidential election, Atiku maintained that he has ample evidence(s) that the 2019 election was rigged in favour of the sitting president, stating that he was going to challenge the outcome of the election in court.

Atiku’s present stand and refusal to congratulate Buhari had been seen as going contrary to the peace accord he signed with President Buhari and other presidential candidates before the election, in which they all agreed to support and congratulate whoever wins.

But Sunday Tribune gathered that prominent Northern elders were already looking for a way to resolve the face-off, having met in Kaduna after the polls.

Findings showed that already, the mouthpiece of the Northern establishment, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has started reaching out to notable northerners with the view of finding a lasting solution to the situation.

According to source, who pleaded for anonymity, the Northern oligarchy, who before the polls endorsed President Buhari, will still want the president to be allowed to finish what he started.

“To this end, the northern elders were of the firm belief that Atiku should allow Buhari to settle down and start thinking of how he will run his next government.

“Both of them are our sons. We are not comfortable with what is going on. One of them must accept the hard verdict and make sacrifice in the interest of the region and Nigeria as a whole”

However, PANDEF, Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Northern Elders Forum and Middle Belt Forum expressed reservation to such stance to pressure Atiku not to approach the tribunal, saying in its statement that “the Forum of Nigerian Leaders and Elders has reviewed major developments leading to the  February 23rd Presidential elections,  the management of the electoral process and the conduct and announced outcome of the elections.

“The Forum commends the statesmanship and commitment to the democratic process of the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, Wazirin Adamawa to exhaust the entire democratic process by challenging the results in the courts as provided for in the constitution. We see his decision as patriotic, responsible and ultimately the highest contribution to the democratic system. Some other person would by now be soaking ‹baboons and dogs in blood,’” the group said.

The Forum said it observed that the last Presidential and National Assembly polls had revealed massive irregularities and outright abuse of the electoral laws, the rules and regulations of INEC as well as the failure of security forces to remain neutral and operate within the highest standards of their calling.

It said that the Peace Accord entered into by the presidential candidates of various political party before poll exercise with former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar and his team was ridiculed by deliberate and open abuse of organs of the state, denial of rights of many citizens to vote and blatant abuse of all the commitments made by the administration under President Muhammadu Buhari.

“To decline to challenge obviously fictional figures, failures to respect key elements of the electoral process such as use of Smart Card Readers and preventing agents and observers’ access to all processes is to condone the massive setback which this election represents for the country,” the Forum said.

According to it, the outcome of the elections were clearly premeditated in the refusal of President Buhari to sign the amended Electoral Act and the orchestrated suspension of Justice Walter Onoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) shortly before the composition of Electoral Tribunals.

The Forum, therefore, called on the judiciary to uphold the highest standards of integrity and commitment to its hallowed role by doing justice to the appeals that would come before it knowing that the eyes of the world would be on them, saying it was aware that attempts were being made to demoralise and intimidate the critical arm of government to remove a conducive context for litigations.

“We are aware that attempts are being made to demoralize and intimidate the judiciary to remove a conducive context for litigations. We remind the judiciary that it is the last defence of our democratic process,” the Forum said.

Forum appealed to all Nigerians to continue to show faith in the democratic process and remain law-abiding as the country awaited the decisions of the judiciary on a matter it said would ultimately determine the quality of the nation›s «democratic process and the nature of the nation we all call our own.”

Speaking further, the Forum recalled that in endorsing the candidature of PDP, Alhaji Atiku for the presidential election, it anchored its support on identifying a candidate among many good candidates one who could retool Nigeria to move on the path of development as a true federal entity.

It said that the pattern of voting in areas where there were semi-free elections showed overwhelming endorsements of its position by popular votes, adding: “And the polls results have shown further a badly divided polity that needs a unifier and not a divisive person as a leader.»

“We insist Nigerians must stand firm and ensure that we are governed by a legitimate leadership,” the Forum declared.