ATIKU: The fast food judgement

You know with the advancement in culture and systems, we are now a society on the go. Everything has to be fast and quick because there is really no time to waste on details and depth. So, we have our food for example on the go and that is why I was not really surprised at the Supreme Court judgment on the application by the PDP candidate at the last presidential elections.

Before we could open our eyes, the judgement was delivered and pronto the applicant saw his application flying into the thrash bin, finally ending a quest for a validation of his beliefs. A belief that millions really do believe have some level of credibility.

Well, the Supreme Court is the final arbiter and that means that the end of the journey has finally been announced. For me, this is the point where I would want to say well done to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for being such a good sport.

Not for him was the cry for the baboons’ blood. Not for him was the call to the streets for wanton violence and carnage in a bid to reclaim a ‘stolen mandate’. Not for him was the jump on the badnwago of ethnic, sectional divide as most would have done to take advantage of that gaping divide for personal gain. Instead he went through constituted processes even with a not-too-robust confidence in the system. This outcome is not strange to many, especially with the play that occurred months before the election with the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Federation. Some analysts had projected into the situation and have come out with the conclusion that it was in keeping with a possible resolution of the elections at the Supreme Court.

So, with all of that, what options did the ‘aggrieved’ candidate have. Should he go rogue and call for a revolution or should he go through a process which I am sure he would be thinking was tainted and corrupted. But like the democrat he is, decided like a true statesman to attempt a strengthening of the process by going the way of institutionalized quest for justice.

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Today, our democracy and system are the better for it. Atiku has shown that he has a bigger heart and a greater love for Nigeria than most. He has buried his personal ambitions for a robust play and rebuilding simply by testing the judiciary and coming out with an all but predictable outcome, nonetheless giving us the much need stability and continuity that we need to continue in the longest stretch of democracy for generations.

I really do pray that he is emulated by all and sundry, shunning the ‘Fast Food’ tendency of seeking justice through bribery, violence, call for international involvement and attempting to push the system into anarchy, simply because you want to validate a result which both sides cheated; just that the other side was better at it.

This could really mean the beginning of a re -strengthening of our democratic processes and institutions and it is for this reason that I congratulate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his advisers as heroes of democracy.

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