Atiku flogging dead horse with US petition against Tinubu – Adebayo

Prominent opposition activist and public interest defender, Comrade Mark Adebayo, has strongly condemned the recent petition submitted by the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress(ADC) and former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to the government of the United States regarding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In a scathing statement released today, Adebayo described Atiku’s diplomatic offensive as an exercise in futility, labelling the petition as completely untenable, irrelevant, and otiose. The activist argued that inviting foreign powers to arbitrate or interfere in Nigeria’s internal political and judicial affairs is a direct assault on the nation’s sovereignty.

“It is deeply embarrassing that a politician of Atiku Abubakar’s standing, who has occupied the second-highest office in this country, still suffers from a colonial mindset,” Adebayo stated.

“Seeking the intervention of the American government over settled domestic political matters is not only untenable under international law but completely irrelevant to the immediate economic and security challenges facing everyday Nigerians.”

Adebayo emphasized that as an opposition voice, he remains fiercely critical of the current administration’s policies. However, he maintained that national interests must supersede partisan desperation. He noted that Nigeria’s judiciary and constitutional frameworks are the only legitimate arenas for resolving electoral and political disputes, rendering Atiku’s foreign appeals legally useless and “otiose.”

“We must learn to wash our to play politics of maturity and patriotism and not parade Nigeria in bad light globally in the service of power desperation,” Adebayo continued. “The United States is not a prefect over Nigeria, nor is it an extension of our Supreme Court. This continuous demeaning of our national institutions before foreign capitals must stop. Atiku’s petition changes nothing, serves no public good, and is dead on arrival.”
The statement concluded with a call to all opposition figures to focus on constructive domestic engagement, policy alternatives, and holding the government accountable from within, rather than embarking on wasteful international media stunts.

“I don’t know what his lawyers are telling him, but a fundamental issue of sovereign and legal jurisdiction arises here in which the American government has no supervisory authority over Nigeria or Nigeria’s judicial institutions and especially lacks the authority to adjudicate on who is or not qualified to run for elective offices within the territorial integrity of the Nigerian Federation. Moreover, the issues raised in that petition have been investigated, interrogated, and conclusively adjudicated by courts of competent jurisdiction with the same return of ‘no case’ because the issues lack material and legal substances. Therefore, what Atiku Abubakar is doing is merely an effort to fly an aeroplane without an engine. It won’t fly. This is a mere distractive propaganda. Atiku would do Nigeria a good deed if he can clear himself of the wanton allegations of massive corruption against him by his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo. He has always been evasive when these allegations are raised rather than clear himself of them. Those who live in a glass house must avoid throwing stones. What Nigerians expect from opposition candidates are workable alternatives to Nigeria’s challenges and not raising issues that are dead, buried, and totally inconsequential.”