The constitution is very clear on who can be president of Nigeria. The person has to be 100% a Nigerian at birth.
You cannot backdate the referendum of 1961 that made Atiku become a Nigerian to the date of his birth in 1946. However, all Nigerians born in that his birthplace since 1961 referendum are fully and wholly Nigerians who are qualified to be president of Nigeria, but not anyone of them born before the referendum.
Summarily; Atiku Abubakar is fully a Nigerian but not qualified to be president of the country.
His case is similar to what the Republicans wanted to use to nullify Obama's presidency, until he provided his birth certificate that showed he was born in Hawaii, on US soil.
Unfortunately, Atiku was not born a Nigerian. He became a Nigerian by choice, not by birth. Those who wrote our constitution did not see this day coming. There's nowhere in the constitution that says the VP must be a Nigerian by birth as well. So he was constitutionally eligible to be VP.
This is the problem with copy and paste Constitution. We brought the US situation upon ourselves even when our cases are not similar. We didn't factor in the people that became Nigerians by referendum and otherwise when putting up the 1999 Constitution. Here we are again.
This is actually no man's fault but a constitutional flaw and Atiku's case has presented yet opportunity for Nigeria to see the urgency for amending our copy and paste constitution which was copied from the USA.
But until then - just like the case of APC/Abubakar Audu of Kogi state, Atiku and the PDP may have to pay for this constitutional flaw.
The APC is merely taking advantage of such constitutional loophole, which is legally allowed and it's called technical knockout.
0 Comments