Opposition figure Atiku Abubakar says court ruling will affect trust in Nigeria’s elections

Nigeria’s former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, who finished second at the February 25 election, has condemned the Supreme Court following the ruling that upheld the victory of the incumbent President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He stressed that the ruling could undermine trust in elections while calling for amendments to electoral laws to promote transparency…

Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s top opposition leader, said on Monday that last week’s Supreme Court ruling upholding President Bola Tinubu’s election victory could undermine trust in elections and urged for amendments to electoral laws to promote transparency.

The country’s highest court dismissed a petition by Atiku and Peter Obi, who finished second and third in the election, thereby ruling out any legal challenge against the incumbent Nigerian leader.

Commenting on the judgment for the first time, Atiku told reporters in the nation’s capital that the court’s decision would lead to “the erosion of trust in the electoral system and our democracy”.

He criticised the judges for refusing to admit new evidence he said showed Tinubu had used a fraudulent university certificate to contest, which the president denies.

Atiku, who was a former vice president from 1999 to 2007, added that Nigeria’s electoral laws should be amended to include making electronic voting compulsory and requiring a presidential contestant to receive more than 50% of the vote in order to win.

Despite his defeat at the February 25 presidential poll and the latest at the Supreme Court, Atiku hinted that he will not be moving out of the Nigerian political space anytime soon.

In the meantime, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has called the former vice-president to accept defeat as a statesman, stressing that Nigeria is greater than his unrealized ambition to be president.