The vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, to boycott the inauguration ceremony of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023.
Baba-Ahmed made this call while speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Friday.
According to him, swearing in a ticket that has not yet met constitutional requirements is tantamount to violating democracy.
The Labour Party Vice-presidential candidate said the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu shouldn’t have issued a certificate of return to Tinubu.
Baba-Ahmed He described the process that produced Tinubu as president-elect was flawed
Baba-Ahmed said, “Swearing in a ticket that has not met the constitutional requirements of the constitution… Whoever does not meet the constitutional requirements must never be sworn in.
“Mr. President, do not hold that inauguration. CJN, your lordship, do not partake in unconstitutionality.”
Recall that the Labour Party Vice presidential candidate had on National television on 22nd March, 2023, said swearing in Tinubu would be tantamount to inviting the military to take over the affairs of Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed, had on March 22 edition of Politics Today on Channels Television, called on Buhari and the Chief Justice not to swear in Tinubu, whom the Independent National Electoral COmmission, INEC declared as the president-elect.
He insisted that declaring Tinubu a winner and issuing him a certificate of return was against the constitution.
Baba-Ahemed’s pronouncement met with criticisms as Nobel Laurete, Professor Wole Soyinka described it as unacceptable because it alienates the people, and it is a ‘fascistic language’.
He said, “The interviewer asked him what would you do if the interpretation of the supreme court judgment goes against you, and he kept saying: no, it is not even open to analysis. This is trying to dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation.
“The supreme court is an institution we should all refer to sooner or later, if not today, but tomorrow, if not this election, the next; but Datti kept saying, no, the supreme court has got, in its wisdom, to agree with me: that is what is known as fascistic language; it is not acceptable.
“And for me, it alienates people, it alienates even supporters. This is intimidation, and it is unacceptable, and I refuse to be part of that kind of language.”
Meanwhile, Soyinka, said he had warned the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi on excesses of the his supporters, otherwise known as ‘Obidients.
He maintained that his rejection of fascism wasn’t new and that on three occasions, he was able to send a message to Obi, that, if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him.
He stated, “What I have read – at least, thus far – this morning, extracted from a one-and-a-half long interview, conducted a week ago with Channels Television, brings once more to the fore, the critical responsibility of the media in transmitting the spoken, even recorded – word to the public.
“This is especially crucial in a time of civic uncertainty. When remarks are taken out of context, spliced into a new one, provided a sensational headline, distortions become stamped on public receptivity, and the central intent of one’s remarks becomes completely unrecognisable.
“I denounced the menacing utterances of a vice-presidential aspirant as unbecoming. It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.
“But what on earth has happened to my even more urgent condemnation of the physical violence inflicted on those designated “strangers” in Lagos in the lead up to, and during governorship elections?
“This prejudicial selectivity is a betrayal of trust, and I find it contemptuous of public deserving. My critique of incipient fascism in the movement remains grounded in indisputable evidence.”
Soyinka stated that throughout the interview, he continued to stress that the final word had yet to be pronounced on the elections – “that omission renders the full message tendentious!”
“My rejection of fascism is nothing new. On three occasions, I was able to send a message to Peter Obi that if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him. It was depressing to watch his lieutenant, a crucially positioned voice of a movement that has ‘broken the mould’, threaten the totality of social existence.
“Whatever our ideological leaning, is Donald Trump the ideal template for a burgeoning democracy in the nation?”
He stated that he also remained concerned by the alleged complaint by him of people not following “instructions.”
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria