Finally, the legal battle between the People's Democratic Party (PDP), and it's presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the recent Presidential election, has been put to rest following the dismissal of Atiku's appeal by a 7 man panel of Supreme Court Justices.
The Supreme Court in its ruling in favour of the APC and Buhari, said it would give its reasons for the dismissal of Atiku's appeal on a later date — something the PDP said would be interesting to know.
While the Supreme Court Judgment obviously sparked "victory at last" celebration in the ruling party’s camp, the rest of the country is at a loss to what the recent twisting of judgments both at the Tribunal and the Supreme Court, means to the rest of us.
Atiku in is response to his loss at the apex court, said the journey has come to an end, but the burden of deciding whether or not justice was served, is left to Nigerians to decide for themselves. This single line of statement by the former vice president carries lots of weight. But it didn't stop there.
Atiku also has a word for those who think the whole legal battle was about him and him alone. He said, "As a democrat, I fought a good fight for the Nigerian people. I will keep on fighting for Nigeria and for democracy, and also for justice."
"To those who think they have broken my spirit, I am sorry to disappoint you. I am too focused on Nigeria to think about myself."
Then comes the line which many Nigerians are familiar with. He said, "The question is not if I am broken. The question is if Nigeria is whole?"
The words, "if Nigeria is whole" suggests the polarization of the country.
Speaking further, he said, "In a democracy, you need a strong judiciary, a free press and an impartial electoral umpire. Nigeria has none of those three elements as at today.
"It will suffice for me to remind Nigeria of this - we are an independent nation and we are the architects of our fate. If we do not build a free Nigeria, we may end up destroying her."
The Good thing is that Atiku's petition has revealed the state of the Nigerian Judiciary as at today. The BAD is that those in the opposition have no choice but to live with the reality of Buhari being President till 2023. And the Ugly leaves Nigerians with the responsibility of deciding where things go from here.
