Supreme Court Has Resolved The Nigeria President And 25% FCT, Abuja Quandary Since 2003

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

Link: https://journalist101.com/2023/03/26/supreme-court-has-resolved-the-nigeria-president-and-25-fct-abuja-quandary-since-2003

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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, IIM Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates (https://updatesonnews.substack.com)

[ogunlakaiye]

Nigerians are legal acrobats and professional word's twisters (benders). In the presidential election, only a woman, Princess Ojei Chichi (49years), was among the 18 candidates. Unfortunately, Mrs Ojei Chichi and her Allied People's Movement got only 25, 961 votes in the presidential election. Had she won the Presidential election, her defeated opponents would have gone to court to get her election declared illegal because Section 134 (2 a & b) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria does not permit a woman to contest for presidency since it specifically (referred to) mentioned a "HE" candidate and not a SHE candidate. The Constitution of Nigeria was drafted by sons of men and for men only.

Interesting in the above posted article in relation to the current twist over whether Bola Tinubu fulfils the requirements to be declared a winner of the presidential polls since he did not secure 25% of the votes cast in FCT Abuja, is that the Federal Capital territory is treated as a State in Section 299 of the Constitution. Thus, the winner of the Presidential election, apart from winning majority votes should also win 25% in two-thirds in each of at least all the 37 States, including Abuja which is given the status of a State, implying 24.66 or approximately 25 States. According to the INEC's declared winner of the February 25, 2023, presidential election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the highest number of votes, 8,794,726 and 25% in 30 States which is more than 25 States required by the Constitution. Let's wait for what arguments legal acrobats and professional word benders will come with at the presidential election petition tribunal.

S. Kadiri