After certificate saga Atiku says he will only back off if Supreme Court rules in Tinubu's favour

FORMER vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said he would only drop his fight with President Bola Tinubu if the Supreme Court rules in the president’s favour in their forthcoming case.

After months of legal wrangling, Nigeria's Presidential Election Tribunal delivered its verdict on September 7 in response to suits filed by the opposition challenging the outcome of the February 29 presidential elections. President Tinubu had been declared the winner but his opponents Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, went to court challenging the result.

On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) announced Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election. According to Inec,  the former Lagos State governor secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who garnered 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who got 6,101,533 votes.

Earlier this week, an attempt by Alhaji Abubakar to embarrass President Tinubu over his academic records failed after the Chicago State University (CSU) released his certificate, with no foul play showing. When asked if he would ever step down the legal battle against President Tinubu, Alhaji Abubakar pointed out that he would only do so when the court process came to an end.

Alhaji Abubakar said: “The case is still in court. I’ll only drop this fight if the court rules. If the court rules that I’m right, fine, if the court rules that Tinubu is right, fine. There’s no other court higher than the Supreme Court. That is where it all ends.”

Meanwhile, the former vice president also dismissed allegations that he betrayed President Tinubu, who many see as his former political ally. He added: "Yes it’s true that we came together in 2007. In Lagos, at the convention, I emerged winner and got the party’s ticket and after I got the ticket, he sent me about five or six senior party men and they met me and said Bola wanted to be my running mate.

“I said, gentlemen, you are all old enough and asked, what would be your reaction to having a Muslim-Muslim ticket? They all answered that they objected to it, I then told them they should have told him and that was the end of the political relationship. He then broke away and supported Umaru Yar’Adua, so what is the ground for him to say I betrayed him?

“In 2003, the PDP took over all the southwestern states with the exception of Lagos. I stood between Obasanjo and Tinubu and told Obasanjo to leave Lagos and he left it. I vehemently deny that I stabbed Tinubu in the back.

“Till today, I won’t do a Muslim-Muslim ticket. I don’t have to be president. We are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious people and our government must reflect our diversity and our composition must reflect the same.”

Alhaji Abubakar had secured the release of President Tinubu’s educational records from the CSU through a court subpoena. These released records showed that President Tinubu’s 1979 certificate, which he submitted to Inec was different from samples the university issued to students that same year.

Under oath, the CSU registrar said he could not authenticate the certificate President Tinubu presented to Inec. However, the university did declare that he graduated from them and there was no conclusive evidence to prove that the certificate presented to Inec was a forgery.