Thread by @SundayUmeha

ABUBAKAR MALAMI'S LEGAL REVISIONISM ON ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR'S NATIONALITY: STATEMENT OF THE ATIKU FOR NIGERIA.

#Thread

The Atiku For Nigeria ("AFN") Organization has followed with concern, the reports & widespread commentary pertaining to the nationality of His Excellency, @atiku following a suit filed by a phantom organization- Incorporated Trustees of the Egalitarian Mission for Africa (EMA).

The AFN particularly notes the 'defence' to the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/177/2019 pending before Justice Inyang Ekwo, of the Federal High Court and filed by the Attorney General of the Federation; and supposedly, Nigeria’s Chief Law Officer- @MalamiSan...

...substantially corroborating the whimsical and moonshine Birther narrative constituted in the said suit, in circumstances that reminds one of similar attacks by former President of the United States- Donald Trump, against then incumbent pres. @BarackObama, in 2012.

Whilst the AFN would have ordinarily called the bluff of the phantom organization― EMA, said to have filed the frivolous Suit in 2019, the 'defence' credited to the office of the #AGF who ought to be abreast with Nigerian Laws & the implications of its historical evolution;...

...and who ought to constantly assert it, without any form of prejudice irrespective of political inclination, has necessitated the need to set the factual records and their legal ramifications straight, so as not to mislead unsuspecting members of the public.

The AFN recall that similar narrative was unsuccessfully peddled by the @OfficialAPCNg and its candidate, @MBuhari at the Presidential Election Petition Court, ("PEPC") in 2019 vide their reply to the petition of His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, (GCON).

It is therefore not altogether surprising that the self-same presidency, acting through @MalamiSan and their collaborators in #EMA, has embarked on the same shameful and ignominious path once again, by subterfuge.

For the avoidance of doubt, the AFN wishes to state categorically that His Excellency, @atiku is not only a bona fide citizen of Nigeria, but fully qualified under section 131(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 to vie for the presidency...

...and by the special grace of God, would present himself before Nigerians, by 2023; of course, with the full support of the @OfficialPDPNig.

Section 25 of our Constitution provides the divergent means by which the citizenship of Nigeria can be acquired by birth as follows:

"25(1) The following persons are citizens of Nigeria by birth namely:
(a) every person born in Nigeria before the date of Independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs to a community indigenous to Nigeria...

...Provided that a person shall not become a citizen of Nigeria by virtue of this section if neither of his parents nor any of his grand-parents was born in Nigeria;

(b) every person born in Nigeria after the date of Independence either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria: and

(c) every person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria.

25(2)In this section, “the date of independence” means the 1st day of October, 1960”.

The AFN states categorically that by sections 25(1)(a) and(c) of the Constitution and the circumstances surrounding His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's birth and ancestry, he is fully a Nigerian citizen by birth.

To be sure, His Excellency, @atiku was born on the 25th of November, 1946, in Jada, present day, Adamawa State, but which until the plebiscite of February,1961, formed part of the Northern Cameroons―a British controlled territory.

Be that as it may, it is a historical fact that His Excellency, traces his patrilineal and matrilineal ancestry to tribes and communities indigenous to Nigeria, namely, Fulani.

His paternal grandfather, Atiku Abdulkadir and whom he was named after, in line with the practice among the Fulani, traces his ancestry to Wurno, in Sokoto State from where he migrated to Kojoli, Jada Local Government Council, now Adamawa State...

... together with his bosom friend, Ardo Usman, and where he would later give birth to Atiku Abubakar’s father, Garba Atiku Abdulkadir.

Every student of Nigerian history, knows that Wurno has always formed a part of the ancient Sokoto caliphate long before independence in 1960.

Again, despite being born ‘outside’ Nigeria, it is equally a historical fact that @atiku traces his maternal ancestry to Dutse, in Jigawa State-- where her mother, Aisha Kande’s family hails from, before migrating to Jada town where she met & married @atiku father, Garba Atiku.

Thus, despite being born ‘outside’ Nigeria, as with millions of other Nigerians today, the fact of his patrilineal and matrilineal ancestry to Wurno, in today's Sokoto State, and Dutse, Jigawa State, respectively, eminently confers the Waziri of Adamawa...

...with a Nigerian citizenship by birth under sections 25(1)(a) and(c) of the Constitution contrary to the warped imaginations of EMA, @MalamiSan and their co-travelers predominantly in the @OfficialAPCNg.

Understandably, the AFN notes that the APC Birthers have been unduly fixated to the Cameroonian dimension of Atiku's nationality, like a hard drug, as though the only way to acquire the Nigerian citizenship by birth, is by being born in Nigeria, without more.

A close scrutiny of the 1999 CFRN shows that the citizenship status of persons born in communities that formed part of the British Cameroons (such as Jada, the birth place of H. E Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (GCON) in 1946) before the plebiscite of February 1961, was duly ratified.

Section 309 of the Constitution unequivocally provides in this regard thus:

"Notwithstanding the provisions of Chp. III of this Consti. but subject to sec. 28 thereof, any person, who became a citizen of Nigeria by birth, registration or naturalization under the provisions of any other Consti.shall continue to be a citizen of 🇳🇬 under this Constitution.”

Constitutional historians, which @MalamiSan is clearly not one, would note that a Special Provision was made under Sections 7 and 10 of the 1963 Republican Constitution with respect to the citizenship status of persons born in the British Cameroons before the plebiscite of 1961..

...thereby conferring them with full Nigerian Citizenship by operation of Law.

Section 10 of the said 1963 Constitution for the avoidance of doubt provides as follows:

"10(1) For the purpose of determining the status of persons connected with the part of Northern #Nig which was not included in the federation on the 31st day of May, 1961, the foregoing provisions of this chapter & subsection (3) of sec 17 of this Consti. shall have effect as if:

...for any reference to a particular date they were substituted a reference to the last day of the period of eight months beginning with the day next following that date; and...

...for any reference to the former colony or protectorate of Nigeria (other than the second reference in section 7) there were substituted a reference to the part aforesaid; and
that other reference included a reference to the part aforesaid.

10(2) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall prejudice the status of any person, who is or may become a citizen of Nigeria apart from that subsection".

Thus, a holistic and purposive construction of the special provisions of sections 7(2); 10 of the 1963 Republican Constitution, and their ratification by section 309 of the extant 1999 Constitution leaves the irresistible conclusion, that since H.E. @atiku GCON became a...

...citizen by birth under the 1963 Constitution, he is for all intents & purposes, & by ordination of section 309 of the Constitution, a Nigerian citizen by birth, and therefore eligible to run for the office of the president of Nigeria under section 131(a) of same Constitution.

If anything, he enjoys "double Nigerian citizenship by birth" both under section 25 of the Constitution, and the ramifications of 1963 Republican Constitution.

The AFN states that it is rather unfortunate that an Attorney General of the Federation who should know the Law and constantly canvass it in line with its spirit and letters, has allowed himself to be blinded by political prejudice...

...so much that he is ready to canvass a strange and incongruous interpretation of the Constitution without minding the implications such may have for the nationalistic aspirations of the Constitution under section 15 thereof.

Law students and Political Scientists may be aware of the famous case of Shugaba Darman v Minister of Internal Affairs (1981) 2 NCLR 459; where a similar allegation was leveled by the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) government against...

...a Founding Member of the Great Nigeria' People's Party (GNPP)--a major opposition party in the then Borno State, Alhaji Shugaba Darman, but which was resolved by the Federal Supreme Court with substantial cost against the Nigerian government.

Forty years after, it is telling that the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari, is trading that shameful path again, all for bad and petty politics.

Having served Nigeria meritoriously in various capacities including holding sway as its Vice President for 8 years, the AFN states that this frivolous claim represents the highest disrespect to the high office of the Vice President of Nigeria currently occupied by @ProfOsinbajo.

Consequent upon the above, the AFN urges the Nigerian Judiciary not to allow itself to be used as a medium of achieving this Machiavellian antics of the APC which clearly has fallen out with Nigerians and now seeks an alternative means of remaining in power...

...by edging out the prospects of an @atiku presidency come 2023, who clearly, is the greatest threat to their vaulting ambition; while calling on Nigerians to rise up against this action which threatens National unity.

Chief (Barr.) Sunday Umeha
Director General
Atiku4Nigeria.

END!

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