The former Governor of Anambra State, Southeast Nigeria, who is challenging the election of President Tinubu in the February 25 election, said this on Monday while speaking on Arise TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ programme.
Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, has said that Nigeria is facing a lot of leadership challenges because Nigerian leaders who have been caught in the web certificate and age forgery cannot do the right things in office.
The former Governor of Anambra State, Southeast Nigeria, who is challenging the election of President Tinubu in the February 25 election, said this on Monday while speaking on Arise TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ programme.
Peter Obi: There's No Way People Who Forge Certificates Will Be Able To Do The Right Things
The process of entering office is crucial, and it should be done through the right means, not shortcuts like forging certificates.
2023 Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi pic.twitter.com/8F22mfFFrk
— ARISE NEWS (@ARISEtv) October 2, 2023
Peter Obi: There's No Way People Who Forge Certificates Will Be Able To Do The Right Things The process of entering office is crucial, and it should be done through the right means, not shortcuts like forging certificates. 2023 Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi pic.twitter.com/8F22mfFFrk — ARISE NEWS (@ARISEtv) October 2, 2023
Obi, who insisted that he and his political party would continue to challenge the electoral process through which Tinubu, a former Lagos governor, was declared winner of the presidential election said that the process through which people come into office, assume or achieve anything is far more fundamental than what they do there thereafter.
On whether Tinubu was qualified to contest for the election or not, Obi said the issue of qualification is the issue of leaders making statements and doing things that are honest and truthful.
He added that it is an issue of honour and integrity, which according to him, is the foundation on which a society is built.
He said, "We are at the point where we are challenging the process. These are parts of what makes a nation. The process through which people come into office, assume or achieve anything is far more fundamental than what they do there thereafter.
"It is important that people come through the right door and not just jumping in through the window and say we should move on and clean things up.
"We are challenging the process and that has to come to a logical end before any other thing. It has to be something that people will seemingly…, that is why I said we have to begin by doing the right thing.
"The issue of qualification is the issue of leaders making statements, doing things that are honest and truthful. This is an issue of honour and integrity. It is the foundation on which you build society.
"Looking at what is happening in Nigeria today, there are so many issues of certificate, age, all sorts of one falsification or the other all over within the leaders.
"There is no way people can be doing this and be able to do the right thing because they are living a falsified life, and that is not good morally and the sign it should be given to the society.
"You don't really have to have all the degrees in the world to be great, but you need to be honourable about your past so we can know who exactly you are."
SaharaReporters had reported that Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, brought a case before a court in the United States in an effort to establish that President Bola Tinubu was not eligible to be Nigerian president despite his election in February 2023 and that he tendered a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC had declared Tinubu as the winner of the election, saying Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party came second and Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third.
Tinubu recently lost his emergency appeal to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago to stop Chicago State University from releasing his academic records to Atiku.
In her ruling on Tinubu’s emergency application in case No. 23 CV 05099, Judge Nancy L. Maldonado overruled “President Tinubu's objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert's recommended ruling, and therefore adopts the ruling in full”.
SaharaReporters reported on September 23 that Tinubu appealed against the ruling of Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert, sitting at the United States’ District Court of Northern Illinois which ordered the Chicago State University (CSU) to release all relevant records pertaining to him to Nigeria's former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.
SaharaReporters had reported how the federal court in Chicago, while ruling on the civil case filed by Atiku Abubakar granted the applicant's request to the court, stating that the former Vice President had been able to sufficiently satisfy the purpose for seeking the records.
Tinubu subsequently pleaded with Judge Nancy Maldonado to block all other details, especially the gender and admission records, among others of the owner of the certificate. However, his appeal failed.