Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is not eligible under the Nigerian Constitution to contest for President of the country.
This was declared on Tuesday by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, who argued that Atiku, having not been born a Nigerian or by Nigerian parents, and having not met the provisions of Sections 25(1) & (2) and 131(a) of the constitution, cannot be president of the country without violating Section 118(1)(k) of the Electoral Act.
He argued further that the former Vice President, who was born in Jada, formerly a part of Northern Cameroon, acquired Nigerian citizenship following a plebiscite that held in 1961.
Malami made these submissions Tuesday in support of a suit brought against the former VP by a virtually unknown group, under the name of Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa.
Atiku was the presidential candidate of the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party in the 2019 election, which was won by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Other Defendants in the suit are the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the AGF.
The group is seeking to determine Atiku’s eligibility to contest for President of Nigeria. Part of its prayers is to decide that given the provisions of sections 25(1) &(2) and 131(a) of the constitution and the circumstances surrounding his birth, Atiku is unfit to be president.
“The first Defendant (Atiku) is not a fit and proper person to be a candidate for election to the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The first Defendant was born on the 25th of November, 1946 at Jada, at the time in Northern Cameroon. By the plebiscite of 1961, the town of Jada was incorporated into Nigeria.
“The first defendant is a Nigerian by virtue of the 1961 plebiscite, but not a Nigerian by birth. The first defendant’s parents died before the 1961 plebiscite,” he said.
“At best, the first defendant can only acquire Nigerian citizenship by the 1961 plebiscite. The citizenship qualifications under Section 26 and 27 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), by implication, have limited the first defendant’s privileges or rights and cannot be equal or proportional to the privileges of other citizens who acquire their citizenship status by birth.
“This would include the legal preclusion of the first defendant from contesting for the office of the President of Nigeria.
According to Malami, if it revealed that a person was born outside Nigeria before Nigeria’s independence in 1960, in a location which was never part of Nigeria until June 1, 1961, as it is in this case, such a person cannot claim Nigerian nationality.
“This is even more so where his parents do not belong to any tribe indigenous to Nigeria until their death. The facts of his (Atiku’s) birth on the Cameroonian territory to Cameroonian parents remain unchallenged.
“At best, the first defendant can only acquire Nigerian citizenship by the 1961 plebiscite. The citizenship qualifications under Section 26 and 27 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), by implication, has limited the first defendant’s privileges or rights and cannot be equal or proportional to the privileges of other citizens who acquire their citizenship status by birth,” he said.
