A senior advocate of Nigeria, Mba Ekpezu Ukweni SAN, has stated that
there is no basis to compare President Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, be it in terms of intellect, exposure, and the management of
human beings.
Speaking with DAILY POST in Calabar, the Cross River State capital,
he said, “If elections is to be done normally and you place both of them
on a platform, there is no how Atiku could be compared with Buhari. So,
I don’t see Buhari being a match to Atiku in an election in a country
that people will be sane enough to vote.
“Atiku may certainly not make the mistakes we are having with the
present administration. We have now gotten another signal from
international monetary fund that our country is receding again into
recession, which is going to be the basis of assessing him (Buhari).
“Buhari had said he was fighting corruption; how far, is there no
more corruption in the country, is the economy healthy, can we say
Nigerian economy is healthy, what makes economy to be healthy, is there
production in the system, are there industry functioning, have people
being employed, has the depending ratio reduced, these are the indices
use in measuring healthy economy,” he said.
On the visit to former president Obasanjo by Atiku, the SAN said,
“Obasanjo was Atiku’s boss, with his status/position in the country and
the role as Yoruba, there is just no how Atiku can ignore Obasanjo”.
Ukweni, however, encouraged Atiku to normalize his relationship with
Obasanjo and recalled that Atiku was vice president to Obasanjo and they
had related well.
“It was just on the issue of principles that they parted ways. When
Obasanjo wanted the third term that was when they parted ways. He can
find avenue to reconcile with Obasanjo, it is a healthy one,
“Obasanjo and Buhari were not best of friends, even in their military
relationship, but they also reconcile on political ground. Politicians
said what is constant is interest, so if Atiku and Obasanjo have found
out that their interests come together, they need to reconcile for the
purpose of pursuing that interest.
“It is healthy politically. Their reconciliation is for the purpose
of fostering any political interest for themselves and country. If
Obasanjo and Atiku come together, Buhari group will be very
uncomfortable, they just have to say things in order to cover up.
“When Obasanjo received him (Buhari) in 2014 and 2015, was he not
happy, he was happy and he exploited the relationship and make good use
of it, it is only when he became President, he started behaving as a
different person in the country and that is why he has lost the goodwill
many of us have for him.
“The emergence of Atiku as the PDP Presidential candidate is a good
choice, if you look at all the presidential candidates, all of them have
good credential and capacity to lead the country well, but for all of
them to come together and accept Atiku as a candidate is a big plus for
the party.
“We pray that all of them should work together for the single purpose
of achieving an electoral victory for the party, anything short of that
means all the efforts they have put together to get to this level is
wasted.”
Speaking on INEC giving Nigerians credible elections in 2019, SAN
said “I have fear. INEC may not give us the needed election results in
2019, look at what happened Osun and Ekiti elections, INEC was not the
umpire we expected.
“The two elections are clear indications of what the general
elections would be, it is a clear show of desperation, INEC is showing
itself as an extension of APC, that is the indications they are giving
to us and it is not a healthy indication because it is not healthy for
the country and for the people.”
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