I have seen many analysis on the internet dismissing the APC allegations as paperweight and nothing worth debating but I write this to tell them that nothing could be farther from the the truth than this.

I will leave the constitutional arguments as that stick has been beaten to pulp by analysts on both sides and simply take a look at other issues with this allegation


First off, for several months into the election, PDP and her supporters employed every divisive rhetoric in the book against Buhari. They used the religious bigot angle, the Fulani herdsmen angle, the ethnicity angle but all this is nothing beside the greatest political drug ever invented... NATIONALISM.

NATIONALISM tramples all others and have been the reason for several wars including world war 1 and 2. Most recently, the fiasco, BREXIT and Donald Trump's election (with the make America great again slogan) happened mostly due to the evocation of nationalism.

In Nigeria for example, a few Christians might not want a Muslim to rule over them, few Muslims might also think, 'no way I'm gonna let a Christian lord it over me' but one thing that every Nigerian (muslim, Christian, yoruba, Edo, Igbo, hausa or any other) will vehemently reject is a NON-Nigerian ruling over them. A pointer to this is how Nigerians bash each other endlessly on social media until a foreigner decides to diss the country or her people. The unity of attack against the foreigner is simply a sight to behold.

With the Atiku birther issue, APC have smartly played the nationalism card and at almost the right time as well. Had atiku and PDP not encouraged the jubril from sudan issue as well as promote all sort of ridiculousness in the name of campaign, most Nigerians by now will think this is extreme politicking and launch a United attack against the presidency and her legal team. But this isn't the case because PDP normalised this and almost paved way for APC to use same weapon they created against them.

Secondly, this erodes trust of the populace in Atiku and Atiku's past deeds doesn't help his case. He has never shown any sort of loyalty to the Nigerian cause. He enriched himself aggressively as a customs officer, sold loads and loads of Nigerian assets to himself and his goons while he was VP and in charge of privatization. I mean, even the university he built while he was Nigerian Vice President is called AMERICAN University. Then on the campaign ground, he was adamant on selling the number one cash cow of the country, NNPC. Only someone without national pride exhibits these qualities.

There is a yoruba adage that says something like "A son will try to preserve the house of his father while the bastard will offload it without a care in the world."
If the courts decides that the election wasn't free and fair, and a Re-Run ordered, this ideas of 'atiku omo ale akotileta' would ring far and wide. A huge huge disadvantage for atiku and PDP. If and a big IF, the courts also decide that atiku won the election, APC can employ this no-loyalty, cameroonian angle and instigate protests in the country that will be soo huge, it just might cripple the economy for a long long while.

All in all, I think it is a pretty smart, although devious play by the presidency and a huge lesson to future political actors to be careful of the waters they navigate in while politicking as same water might warm up to burn them.

While Jubril al Sudani episode is conspiracy theory, Atiku's Cameroonian birth is a documented historical fact, and as such a constitutional matter that is deserving of court interpretation.