Mr. Stanley Osifo, a former presidential aspirant from the All Progressives Congress (APC), has expressed his appreciation for the Supreme Court’s decision to affirm President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s election. Osifo however, encouraged Nigerians to support the judiciary, which he believes boasts of competent and dynamic judges. He spoke in an interview with OLADIPUPO AWOJOBI. Excerpts:
What’s your response to the judgement of the Supreme Court on the 2023 Presidential Election?
It’s a wonderful judgement, I want to congratulate the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all Nigerians because the victory is for all Nigerians. I know that going forward, there would better focus, he will reach out to more Nigerians and I believe that it’s going to be positive.
But some people are saying that it is expected that the incumbent president would win his case at the Supreme Court as it happened in the past, and that for future elections, all cases should be determined before swearing-in, what is your take on this?
This question should not have come at all because we should not cast aspersion on the judiciary. We believe that we have strong intellectual as well as erudite judges. What has happened is not based on the social media or personal issues, every issue that was brought was subjected to judicial interpretations. From what we have seen, we discovered that without any bias, Bola Ahmed Tinubu won at the polls.
He won at the tribunal, Appeal Court and at the Supreme Court. It is clear that Nigerians gave their mandate to the man and they believe he can do it. People voted for him because they believed that he could do it. There was an election before he was sworn- in, it is not just that he was sworn-in. on the day of the election, everybody participated and after the elections, we had the results and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the winner.
Not only that, Tinubu was given the Certificate of Return and automatically, it means he was the choice of Nigerians. Don’t let us say that an incumbent can ever be defeated, many incumbents have been defeated in the past, we have had cases of some governors that were removed in the past. But, for this one, they didn’t have enough evidence against him. You cannot use other issues that are outside electoral matters to judge someone.
So, the court has done its job and said that Tinubu is the winner. I want to congratulate everybody and we must continue to encourage the judiciary to do their job in any court in Nigeria.
Apart from the presidential election, there were other elections that were taken to court and some of the winners lost their seats, so how do you think we can have better electoral system in Nigeria so that court cases can be minimised?
To make our elections better, let us talk to ourselves because it is human beings who conduct elections. We should focus on self-improvement for brighter electoral future. If we do this, we will have free and fair elections, so we should be well co-ordinated. Let us look at what has happened, were there any issues that have happened before now and the judgement that was given. Look at the issues that happened before the tribunal.
We should talk to ourselves because we have fine electoral laws. You can see the amendment that was done by the last government, you can see that the whole thing has become better. Some people just want to be seen and be heard that they were presented by their parties. If you lose an election, if you don’t have strong evidence, why should you go to court in the first place?
I want to commend President Tinubu, who has refused to be distracted by the whole thing. A lot of people are just coming up with issues that are frivolous and the court looked at all these. and gave judgement because we we have good laws. I know that many of us are saying that may be we should have independent candidates, but we should look at what we have on our hands.
What do you think President Tinubu should do urgently to arrest the economic crisis in the country?
Absolutely, he would do something about the crisis. You should know that he is going to attend to everything. He is having interactions with many people to see what could be done. He is working tirelessly to see that all these issues are addressed. He is going to do his best. I congratulate all Nigerians both within and outside the country. Nigerians did not make a mistake in choosing Tinubu as their President.
A lot of actions that he has taken and decisions that he made show that he has come to really work. From the day of inauguration till today, he is still working. I only want to say that the President should do more. In the few months that he has been in office, he has proven that he knows what to do. Both locally and internationally, he is addressing issues, he is responding to issues, he is doing things that Nigerians never thought he could do.
I want to encourage him to double his efforts at ensuring that every area that he needs to touch is touched and he should ensure that there is improvement in the livelihood of Nigerians. What he started is good, he just needs to improve, get better and address those issues. It would take time, but I believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
With his victory at the Supreme Court, I want to assure Nigerians that they would see more of President Bola Tinubu in the coming months and years.
