A constitutional lawyer, Norrison Quakers (SAN) on Wednesday said many prominent Nigerians have fled the country because they envisage that the judgement by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) may snowball into crisis.
There is palpable tension in the air as the Tribunal will today deliver its ruling on the petitions filed to contest the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu as winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential poll, with Atiku and Obi coming second and third respectively.
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The petitions were filed by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
The petitioners are all seeking for a nullification of the disputed election with each claiming victory.
Speaking on Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ monitored by QUEST TIMES, Quakers said the tension is caused by the belief of many young voters who believe that the person they voted for and who actually won the election was not declared the winner.
He said “What I see creating the tension and the conflict is that you have three generations. You have the analogue generation, you have the hybrid generation and then you have the fully digitalised generation. Because of the exposure of the digitalised generation who are just coming in to vote for the first time in this presidential election and if you look at it in that context, you will see that many of them rallied round a particular candidate and that is what is creating the tension. They believe that that particular candidate should have been declared as the winner of the election”.Â
“So essentially, you have a group of persons who also for a long time have been advocating for change in the Nigerian environment. Many of them also queued behind the #EndSARS. So you have a lot of them now looking at this outcome of the election”.Â
“The reason why you have so much tension is as a result of this new generation. Now, the hybrid, that is those who are between the analogue and the digital are there either to pacify or create some sort of equilibrium. So, you have a system that has been heated up as a result of this”.Â
“This is not the first time that we will go to the polls and this is not the first time an outcome us being challenged. But you now have a generation that is not really keen. They’ve lost confidence in the judiciary in relation to certain pronouncements and they are not ready to persevere or be patient”.Â
“The tension is so much that one can feel it in the air. I recall that before now, some of our friends have course to travel out of the country because they envisage crisis which is not necessary”.
