By Julius Alabi, Akure
Renowned Constitutional Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, Dr. Tunji Abayomi has urged Nigerians to have a deeper and new thinking that will put Nigeria on a steady map of development.
According to him, now that the issue of Presidential Election Petitions has been resolved by the Supreme Court, we need to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to develop the nation, saying that the mark of a leadership is to be strong when one loses, and be weak when one wins.
Abayomi who made this known in Akure, the Ondo state capital while speaking with newsmen said there was need for us to develop better maturity, losing is part of life and we need to focus on is our nation and also respect legal institutions.
“I want to salute President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his maturity throughout the period of the Presidential Election Petition, even before the election despite constant attacks innuendo and all sorts of unwarranted vituperations, yet he maintained common touch on the high calling.
“Let me also say here that all over Africa, there is a need for new thinking. The desperation and frustration during and after the election is totally unnecessary in my own view.
“I think we need to come to a new realization. All this desperation to get there at all cost is unnecessary. We condemned INEC, Court because simply we want to be there even when we are not entitled to be there.
‘We fight so.much over the election, we do so much to be there, it is only one man that will be there, one man in his time, there are so many parts which we can play in the development of our nation,” he said.
Abayomi however commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his calmness and leadership accommodation, tolerance over the attacks, disrespectful and name calling throughout the period of presidential election petition.
“I totally agree with the fact that Mr President should now focus on governance and I also think we need to extend our expectations for better governance of our nation to the Legislative and even the Judiciary. Governance under democracy is divided into three parts, that is the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary,” he noted.
While speaking on the recent Supreme Court judgment on the Presidential Election Petition, the Constitutional lawyer said: “I remember saying that it will be worse for the losers at the Supreme Court. My prediction was based on experience as one of the lawyers in the 1983 Waziri Ibrahim versus Sagari and the 2003 Buhari versus Obasanjo election Petitions. You cannot build an election Petition on wrong evidence, false evidence or no evidence.”
According to him, when you look critically on some issues raised by the two main opposition candidates, presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi and that of Peoples Democratic Party, Abubakar Atiku any elementary legal mind will understand that it was an exercise in futility.”
On the issue of two third in Federal Territory, Abuja, Abayomi noted that the Constitution has resolved that in a case of Waziri Ibrahim against Shagari in 1983, it was resolved that “You treat Abuja, Federal Territory as a State. So, you don’t treat Abuja more than any state in the Federation.
“But a lot of people confuse the issue when they talk of Abuja Federal Territory. It is a mere nomenclature like my own state Ondo. The focus is not Federal Territory, the focus is on the voters and now people forget that the Federal government has no voters, only state and local governments have, that is why the Constitution turns the Federal Territory to State so as to account for the voters in the area.
“No voter in Nigeria can have more value than other voters in other states. We cannot treat unequal equal. The constitution has resolved that Abuja cannot be treated more than a state or less than a state,” Abayomi added.