The greatest challenge facing the democratic process in Nigeria, as in most developing nations, has to do with management of the post-election transition process. The political tension and acrimony between parties and politicians peaks at the polls and tends to escalate during collation and announcement of results, giving electioneering a “do-or-die” tendency.
Instructively, this welcome departure from do-or-die politics of uncompromising competition for power at the expense of national stability and safety of lives and property, was predicated on the profound pronouncement by the former president that his “political ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian”, which he eloquently demonstrated by opting for voluntarily conceding defeat rather than rejecting results, alleging rigging, stoking political tension and eventually resorting to...
Nigeria has not only survived 2015 intact and consolidated as a viable democratic nation with exemplary statesmen as leaders who cherish their citizens, it has also endured the political strains of another general election without “falling”. The country has also admirably managed its election-related trauma though not without the inevitable skirmishes here and there.
Nevertheless, seeking judicial review of presidential election results does not preclude exploring promising possibilities for adding Atiku Abubakar to the roll of honourable, selfless, patriotic, people-oriented and, above all, God-fearing Nigerian political leaders who share former President Goodluck Jonathan’s noble political principle that his “political ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian” which motivated him, even as an incumbent president, to magnanimously pre-empt the...