&w=64&q=75)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has appealed to his counterparts in the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, respectively, to join his quest for 'justice' in the ongoing certificate saga involving President Bola Tinubu.
The former Vice President made the plea during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, October 5, 2023, where he briefed Nigerians on his discoveries regarding the academic records of the President at the Chicago State University (CSU).
Atiku had compelled the CSU, through a United States court, to release Tinubu's academic credentials, including his certificate, transcripts, and admission documents to him, over suspicion that the certificate the President submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may bear some discrepancies.
The school has since handed over the sought-after documents to the PDP candidate's team, and he's now calling on Obi, Kwankwaso, and other Nigerians to queue behind him as he seeks to challenge Tinubu's victory at the Supreme Court.
“Let me call on all well-meaning Nigerians, leaders of thoughts, our religious, traditional, community and political leaders and in particular, Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP and the leaders of every political party in Nigeria and indeed every single person who loves this country as I do and who wishes nothing but the best for this country as I do, to join me in this campaign to enshrine probity, accountability and the basic principles of justice, morality, and uprightness in our country and in our government,” Atiku said during the press conference.
“This is a task for every one of us,” he added.
Tinubu and Atiku were not just friends, they also built a political alliance together at some point, with the latter running for the presidency in 2007 under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) - a political party widely believed to be owned by the former.
However, their relationship has since gone south as both protagonists have found themselves on opposite sides of the political divide since the 2015 general elections.
But Atiku explained that he and the President had parted ways politically as far back as 2007 after he rejected Tinubu's offer to be his running mate in the election of that year.
He said, “I beg to disagree with Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yes, it is true in 2007 we came together to form AC and in Lagos at the convention, I emerged the winner and got the ticket. After I got the ticket, he sent about five or six people, some of them are here and they met me and said to me that Bola wanted to be my running mate.
"I said gentlemen, you’re all old enough and apparently, virtually all of you are Christians except one of you. What would be your reaction to have a Muslim-Muslim ticket? All of them said they totally objected to it. So, why didn’t you tell him when he was giving you the message that Mr Tinubu, the message you’re giving us we don’t seem to agree with you? Why are you coming to me?,” the PDP candidate recounted.