OBI: S'COURT'S AFFIRMATION OF TINUBU IS BEGINNING OF OUR QUEST FOR BETTER NIGERIA

Party and the Obidient Movement are now effectively in opposition. We are glad that the nation has heard us loud and clear. We shall now expand the confines of our message of hope to the rest of the country.

“We shall meet the people in the places where they feel pain and answer their needs for hope. At marketplaces, motor parks, town halls, board rooms, and university and college campuses, we all carry and deliver the message of a new Nigeria.

“As stakeholders and elected Labour Party officials, we shall remain loyal to our manifesto.

"We will continue to canvas for good governance and focus on issues that promote national interest, unity, and cohesion. We will continue to give primacy to our constitution, the rule of law, and the protection of ordered liberties. We will offer the checks and balances required in a functional democracy and vie robustly in forthcoming elections to elect those who share our vision of a new Nigeria."

Obi explained that given the present national circumstances, there was a compelling need for a strong political opposition.

He said, "We shall, therefore, remain in opposition, especially because of the policies and the governance modalities that we in the Labour Party campaigned for, especially reducing the cost of governance, moving the nation from consumption to production, reducing inflation, ending insecurity, promoting the rule of law, guaranteeing the responsibility to protect, and stabilising the Nigerian currency; are clearly not the priorities of the present administration nor is it interested in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"If there is one thing that has immensely gladdened my heart in the course of the struggle of the past 18 months, it is the passionate desire of our people, especially our young people from across ethnic and religious divides, to construct a new and restructured Nigeria that will work for all Nigerians. That goal remains my guiding light and abiding inspiration."

Obi said, "I take personal pride and express gratitude to those who share our vision; and who have also exhibited rare courage to challenge the nefarious system, the genuineness of individuals' identities and their defining and qualifying particulars up to the highest extent allowed by law.

“Nigeria holds out hope of infinite possibilities leading to our desirable greatness. I remain consistent in my belief in the possibility of a new Nigeria built on character competence, capacity, compassion, integrity, and respect for the rule of law based on justice and fairness."

Fielding questions from reporters, Obi condemned the purchase of SUVs for members of National Assembly and budgetary provisions for the office of the First Lady, stating that they signify gross acts of irresponsibility and insensitivity in a time of multi-dimensional poverty among Nigerians. He said as president, he would have done things differently, because as governor of Anambra State, all official cars were Peugeot 604.

He condemned the purchase of vehicles for the office of the First Lady, saying the office has no constitutional backing.

Presidency to Obi: Stop Casting Aspersion on Supreme Court for Affirming Tinubu's Election

The Presidency responded to Obi in a statement, titled, "Peter Obi Should Find Better Vocation Instead of Casting Aspersions on the Judiciary," by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga.

In the statement, the presidency advised Obi to stop blaming the apex court and the electoral body for his rejection at the poll by most Nigerians.

While emphasising that judicial pronouncements by justices were based on evidence, precedents and the rule of law, the presidency accused Obi of running a divisive, polarising and hateful presidential campaign.

It alleged that Obi was said to have failed woefully as two-time governor of Anambra State, claiming that he was rejected by most Nigerian voters at the polls for being a threat to the nation's peace, progress and stability.

The presidency, in the release, stated, "We are at a loss as to how the copy-cat Obi and his faction of Labour Party convinced themselves they won an election in which they came a distant third.

"The grand delusion that made Mr. Obi believe he could have won a national election where he ran the most hateful, divisive and polarising campaign that pitched Christians against Muslims and one ethnic group against the other in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria should be a matter for deeper examination.

"At the press conference where he tried, in vain, to gaslight Nigerians with false claims and innuendos, Mr. Obi contradicted himself. Here was a beneficiary of judicial pronouncements in the past now castigating the same court because its judgment did not go his way.

"Mr. Obi claimed the Supreme Court justices didn't consider public opinion in delivering what has been applauded as a most profound judgement in an election appeal where the Labour Party candidate presented the most watery and unreasonable petition before any court in the history of electoral cases in Nigeria.

"He made false allegations of rigging and other electoral malpractices yet could not produce any evidence to back up his claims at both the court of first instance and at the apex court. In a failed effort to mobilise and retain the support of his supporters, Obi gave them a forlorn hope that he won the election and would prove it before the courts. Throughout the trial, his lawyers didn't present any alternative results different from the results INEC uploaded on the IReV portal and the ones signed by all party agents from the 176,000 polling units.”

The statement added, "We wonder how the Labour Party candidate expected the courts to do justice on the basis of rumours, lies and false narratives by sponsored partisans and fanatical members of his Obidient Movement.

"We expected the Labour Party candidate to know that the Supreme Court or any other court does not give judgment based on public opinion and mob sentiments. Judicial pronouncements are based on evidence, precedents and the rule of law.

"Having admitted that the Supreme Court ruling brought an end to litigation and any challenge to the bona-fide of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the validly elected leader of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Obi should have congratulated President Tinubu for his victory and pledge his support, in the spirit of statesmanship.

"But instead, he brought up extraneous matters that he thought the apex court should have considered to declare him the winner. In our view, the drowning Obi, just like Atiku, was merely attempting to hold on to a straw in raking up new allegations, which exist only in his imagination and that of his hordes of supporters.

"Our admonition to Mr. Peter Obi is to find another worthwhile vocation to engage his time henceforth, having been rejected by majority of Nigerians who didn't consider him qualified to lead our country.

"Nigerians rejected Peter Obi and his demagoguery at the poll because he posed present and future danger to the peace, progress and stability of our country.”

According to the presidency, "Obi's antecedents as Governor of Anambra for eight years didn't inspire any confidence as someone capable of running a country like Nigeria. No tangible records of achievement in the state he governed recommended him for the Presidency of Nigeria.

"If Mr. Peter Obi truly believes in Nigeria, the time to prove it is now when all men and women of goodwill are rallying support for President Tinubu in his determination to lead a new era of prosperity, inclusive governance and economic growth in Nigeria.

"Finally, we welcome Obi and his party to play the role of the opposition and start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027.

“We hope by then he would campaign on issues and not whip up religious and ethnic sentiments as he did in the last campaign."

APC to Obi: Court Cases Are Not Won On Public Opinion

APC said Obi's inability to distinguish between his distorted version of public opinion and reality had been his greatest undoing throughout the electioneering season. It said court cases were not won on public opinion, but on evidence and the law.

National Publicity Secretary of APC, Felix Morka, in a statement issued yesterday, described Obi's reaction to the judgement of the

Supreme Court, which dismissed his appeal against Tinubu, as belated and grouchy.

The ruling party said it welcomed Obi's decision to engage in opposition politics going forward, even as it urged him and his party to do so maturely and constructively.

The APC spokesperson said Obi at his press conference again blamed the country's democratic institutions, particularly the courts, for not awarding him victory - not because he won the election, not because he proved his case in court as required by law but because he was Obi.

Morka stated, "Mr Obi's gross inability to distinguish between his warped version of public opinion and reality has been his greatest undoing throughout the electioneering season.

"That haughty sense of entitlement seems to pervade his vitriolic attack on our institutions.

"Taken by the mass hysteria of his vociferous netizens and fringe supporters, Mr. Obi ensconced himself in alternate reality, a parallel political universe of self-delusion.

''As someone who has previously benefited from the rulings of the Supreme Court on electoral matters, Obi's acerbic attack on the judiciary only belies his arrogance and vainness.