Agbakoba Is Wrong On Atiku By Anthony A. Kila | Nairalaw

By Anthony A. Kila

By any standard and generally speaking, Olisa Agbakoba is a good
man: He has a known profession wherein he has excelled and
continues to lead, he stands for his well-articulated ideas at any
time and if need be he pays and he has paid for it severally. When
he supports, he never does it as a follower, rather he does it as
an ally and he always make clear his conditions and positions. His
rise to fame and fortune is neither sudden, miraculous nor
mysterious, he has earned every accolade he has and when you reason
with him you don’t feel you cannot see why he is who he is. By the
Nigerian standard of today, all these make Olisa Agbakoba a great
man.

That said however and lest we become guilty of what we accuse
others of, it is important that we clearly and publicly state that
in the case of Atiku Abubakar, Olisa Agbakoba is wrong. There is no
other way to put it than calling it wrong. Agbakoba is wrong on the
advice he gave Atiku on his present options and on his future
prospects.

In case you missed it, right after announcements by INEC of the
results of the presidential elections wherein as candidate of the
PDP, Atiku Abubakar lost his bid to unseat the incumbent President
Buhari who ran on the platform of his APC, Atiku and his party
rejected the result, indicating that there was a heavy dose of
voter suppression in his strongholds and that of the PDP, as well
high inflation of votes in the strongholds of his opponent, Buhari
and the APC. Atiku and his party further claim that they have proof
of this malpractices and that they intend to go to court to
challenge Buhari’s victory, expose the irregularities and overturn
result declared by INEC.

Olisa Agbakoba in his reaction to the election results amongst
other comments advised Atiku not to go to court, he also urged
Atiku to join forces in building the movement of the third force in
the country. Two very related issues here: one legal and the other
political. On both counts Agbakoba is wrong.

There is an amusing side on the legal front: A lawyer that
advises a litigant not to go court is not a common occurrence.
Personally, I would like to see more of such occurrence, but not in
a case like this one. Whilst it might sound commonsensical and
indeed noble of Agbakoba to dissuade Atiku from going to court, in
reality such recommendation if heeded deprives the system of
valuable contributions the judicial arm of government can make to
the development and consolidation of democracy in Nigeria.

For me, this is neither about Atiku nor the PDP: Going to court
when any party feels the that the democratic process has been
compromised for the benefit of any other party is a chance for the
system and those operating it to prove that the system is indeed
free from distortion and that those elected through it have true
legitimacy to govern. For posteriority sake, investing some time in
court is a good idea because it clarifies which are the myths and
realities of the electoral process, it also allows us to improve
imperfections that the court case might uncover.

In a fair court hearing, both sides will have a chance to put
forward their cases and the judgment will assure all that justice
has been done. There can be no justice if there is no hearing. It
is not a good scenario that in which those that embody close to
half of the voting population feel that they have been robbed of
victory, there should be an avenue that leads to closure and the
court is such avenue.

It is also very dangerous for the system if people get used to
the idea the court is a waste of time, if anything we should be
working towards more credible courts that can be seen to be above
partisan limitations and corruption.

On the political front, Agbakoba is wrong when he calls Atiku to
join in leading the third force movement: That is simply not his
world. I suspect Atiku has no interest in the third force and I
also suspect that those truly interested in the consolidation of
the third force movement will struggle to list Atiku as part of
their icons.

Atiku is legitimately a proud member of the establishment
anchored in the PDP and APC, their politics is practiced through
zoning and rallies, their funding is based on a model wherein a few
fund many, their structures are based on who is in power today and
who was yesterday and the influence of such power on people, they
don’t really focus on the future.

When Atiku left the PDP for the APC he had no problem settling
in, when he left the APC back for the PDP he had no problem
settling in there either because those two parties are just
sections of one world: His world.

Let us be clear: He is not the only one that belongs to the
world but we are talking about him today.

The third force if it really wants to count for something in
Nigeria needs to learn to recruit more soldiers and less generals,
focus on ideas not personalities, work based on facts and data not
myths and desires, interact with the willingness to sacrifice not
impose and above all needs to commit and dedicate itself to
institution building.

Olisa Agbakoba is wrong; he (Agbakoba) not Atiku should join
hands with others in leading the third force movement.

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