INTERVIEW >>

You went to court in 2014 to stop Jonathan from contesting on constitutional grounds but did not succeed. Do you see his loss at the polls as compensation for your efforts?

Let us say I went to court to get a constitutional interpretation of having a president holding office for a cumulative period exceeding eight years. The Supreme Court failed to take that matter. But I am writing a book chronicling my experience in Nigerian courts in which the issue is treated. The book is a critique of the judgements entered against me in the 10 civil suits I instituted. From a litigant view point, the book reviews those judgements to fault the arguments. It will be out within the year.

Jonathan blamed his loss on the US. What in your view led to the defeat of an incumbent for the first time in Nigeria?

I think I answered this question in an article I wrote published by your paper (Daily Trust) in July 2015, titled ‘Why PDP Failed to Rule for 60 Years.’ So when I read Segun Adeniyi's ‘Against the Run of Play,’ where Jonathan made those allegations, I found some fundamental defects of leftouts in facts and analysis. The most critical take-off point and questions leading to the merger, and Buhari's subsequent candidacy and victory are missing. Any analysis of the 2015 presidential election that does not have as its starting point, the suit of CPC in the 2011 Presidential Election Tribunal, and its fallouts, is obviously grossly defective.

What makes the 2011 tribunal critical is that its institution altered Buhari's political stance and its fallout made easy the merger for APC. Recall that on Wednesday, 13th April, 2011, when rounding up his presidential campaign, Buhari said, among other things, that if he lost the 16th April election, neither him nor his political party would challenge the outcome at the presidential election tribunal, and that the 2011 presidential election would be his 3rd and final time in ever contesting any elective office.

He wouldn’t leave politics, he had said, but he won't ever contest again. On April 16,