Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on Thursday said the only condition he would drop the fight against President Bola Tinubu is if the Supreme Court rules against him.
Atiku, while answering questions after his news conference in Abuja, said there there were discrepancies in the certificate Tinubu submitted to the INEC which should have rendered him ineligible to contest the election.
He said he had already filed his appeal against Tinubu at the Supreme Court.
“It is only when the court rules that he is right that I will drop this fight; in other words, I will drop this fight when the court rules because there is no court higher than the supreme court,” Atiku said.
However, during the briefing, Atiku said political leadership and active citizenship mattered because “they are ways through which we all work together to build a country that works for all who live in it. Our country is bigger than any of us, and its standing in the world affects the fate of all who come from or live in it. As leaders, it is our duty to advance the well-being of all our people and of the country.
“For this purpose, my generation worked hard to return the soldiers to the barracks and to defend the right of the people to elect and establish for ourselves a legitimate government. Our elections are established and governed by law and founded on the constitution from which leadership and government in Nigeria alone derive their legitimacy.
The people look up to us as leaders to respect these rules and, where necessary, to defend them. This is what brings us here.”
Atiku said today, he had been called upon again as a people to uphold and defend the ground rules of elective government in the country, as the constitution prescribed the requirements for those who sought the highest elective office in the land.
“It should not take months or, indeed, decades, for the institutions concerned to be able to do their work in establishing the credibility of any certificates presented by candidates for public office.
“We undertook this journey at great cost and for important reasons. The ground rules for legitimate governance in our country need to be upheld, and the reputation of our country is at stake. That affects everyone, Nigerians everywhere.
“I am a democrat by conviction and a citizen of a country that I love. The issues at stake in this case require us once more to re-dedicate ourselves to both the country and our constitution,” Atiku said.
