The president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said that Atiku Abubakar couldn’t have won the presidential election. He gave reasons why some of the votes Atiku would have gotten were taken by other candidates. They are the candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party. Now, they were formerly members of Atiku’s party, the PDP.
Specifically, Tinubu made this statement in his preliminary objection to Atiku’s petition. The petition is seeking the nullification of the result of the February 25 presidential election. First, INEC declared that Atiku came in second with 6,984,520 votes. Then, Obi and Kwankwaso got 6,101,533 and 1,496,687 votes, respectively, to finish third and fourth.
Atiku alleges manipulation of the polls. So, he went before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja. He petitioned that Tinubu’s declaration as winner be voided. In response, through his legal team, Tinubu said that there was no way Atiku could have won. Furthermore, he said the possibility of Atiku winning was dimmed by many factors. These included the infighting within his party and the defections of Obi and Kwankwaso to other parties.
In 2019, Atiku contested the presidential election against the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Then, the PDP was more cohesive, with Obi as his running mate and Kwankwaso as one of his supporters. They were a formidable force. However, there was a change of situation as Obi broke away from the PDP to join the Labour Party to contest. Then, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso also broke away from the PDP to contest the presidential election on the ticket of the NNPP.
Tinubu described Atiku as a serial loser. Atiku’s votes were reduced because his followers became divided. This was due to Peter Obi and Kwankwaso leaving his party.