Irked by what it termed unpatriotic act of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Political Parties for Good Governance (PPGG), has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to strip him of the national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).
The groups argued that there was nothing honourable about Atiku for making unguarded and baseless allegations, adding that he has never subscribed to true democracy nor respected the rule of law.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Convener of the CSOs, Dr Lilian Ene Ogbole, also urged Nigerians to ignore the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, “for dragging the image of Nigeria in the mould.”
Ogbole said stripping Atiku will serve as a deterrent to others so that Nigerians can begin to henceforth attach some regard to the office of the President.
She also lambasted the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for questioning the identity of President Tinubu, describing it as childish, shameful and laughable.
“It keeps getting clearer that former vice president Atiku Abubakar is on a collision course with national interest and has never subscribed to true democracy nor respected the rule of law.
“These assertions were made even clearer when he revealed to the world during his over-hipped, baseless, and content-ridden world press conference, how he singlehandedly relinquished Lagos state to Asiwaju while they fraudulently took over other Southwestern states by hook and crook during the 2003 general election.
“This no doubt is a mockery of our collective sensibility as a people committed to the ideals of constitutional democracy.
“It truly beats our imagination how a man with a long history of electoral manipulation, habitual disrespect for constituted authority and serial election manipulator who will stop at nothing, whether moral or immoral, will shamelessly come to the public domain to accuse a true and descent democrat of attributes that are alien to him.
“It is common knowledge that most of the dirty characteristics that Atiku has falsely accused President Tinubu of are synonymous with his name and character as confirmed by his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo who lacked words of expression to qualify Atiku’s lack of patriotism and decency.
“As stakeholders in the business of nation-building, we wish to use this medium to call on President Tinubu to utilise the authority conferred on him by the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended to protect the image and interest of the country by stripping Atiku Abubakar Sadiq of the national honours of GCON.
“You will agree with us that a man with Atiku’s character is not honourable and does not deserve to keep the award that is meant for honourable men and women,” the coalition pleaded.
Ogbole added that; “stripping Atiku will also serve as a deterrent to others so that Nigerians can begin to henceforth attach some regard to the office of the President.”
On Obi, the coalition noted: “if Atiku’s press conference is aptly described as a face-saving gimmick, to capture power from the backdoor by weeping casual sentiments by fabricating and speculating lies that have been globally verified and completely buried forever, then Mr obi’s belated press conference over the same issue, is at best childish, shameful and laughable.
“It is rather inexplicable and hard to comprehend what manner of desperation we are dealing with, particularly Peter Obi’s desperate attempt to create all manners of doubts around the documents and personal information that Mr President submitted to INEC without a single proof of evidence to substantiate his claims.
“Rather than providing evidence to contradict President Tinubu’s submissions to INEC, Obi laughably requested the President to help him with evidence that will invalidate the certificates and information submitted to INEC.”

By Jide Orintunsin

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