Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the archbishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Abuja, stated that he is awaiting the court’s announcement of the true winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Recall that on March 1, the Independent National Electoral Commission named Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress the victor after receiving 8,794,726 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar received 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.
Since Section 135(2) of the 1999 Constitution states that the President shall resign from office at the end of a term of four years beginning on the date he took the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Office, which implies he must hand over power to the president-elect, the results of the presidential and state elections are being contested in various tribunals.
In an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, Onaiyekan stated that there shouldn’t be any oaths taken while legal challenges to election results are pending.
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The bishop argued that many politicians do not uphold democracy and that they rigged elections because “they want power by all means.” However, he urged Tinubu’s incoming administration to pay attention to the aspirations of Nigerian youths.
“There are cases in court that have not been disposed of. That is why we are in an anomalous situation. We have a president-elect whose election is being challenged and the court is handling it.
“I’m still waiting for the court to tell me who won the election. It doesn’t make much sense to be swearing in people when they are still in court.
“I think we need to review our election process, so we do have a winner who will be sworn in and whom everybody would rally around,” he said.
He added that it is a pity that it is taking longer for the court to come to its decision.
“My problem is that the whole system of our election must be properly reviewed so that it would be easier for winners to emerge according to the wishes of the people.
“It is not right to have a system that is constantly contested. We should find out why is every election being contested.”
“Only those Nigerians who doesn’t want to be sincere would be looking for agenda. We are still in the same situation, any government must face those issues otherwise we can’t survive in the country. Many young boys who have energy and Nigerians are checking out of the country,” he said.
