President Bola Tinubu has been asked to strip Atiku Abubakar of the national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON).
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the request was made by a civil society organisation, known as the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations and Political Parties for Good Governance, on Thursday.
The organisation said Atiku’s recent press conferences, in which he made allegations against Tinubu, were “face-saving gimmicks” and “childish, shameful, and laughable.”
The convener of the coalition, Dr Lilian Ogbole, said that Atiku’s actions were “getting clearer” that he was on a “collision course with national interests” and had never subscribed to true democracy or respected the rule of law.
Ogbole said that Atiku, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the 2023 election, was not a man Nigerians could comfortably entrust with the welfare of the country, going by his leadership antecedents.
She said that the coalition was calling on Tinubu to utilise the authority conferred on him by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to protect the image and interest of the country by stripping Atiku of the GCON award.
“You will agree with us that a man with Atiku’s character is not honourable and does not deserve to keep the award that is meant for honourable men and women of repute,” Ogbole said.
She said, “The fact that Alh. Atiku Abubakar serially lost his bid to become the President of Nigeria isn’t enough reason why he should deliberately drag the image of Nigeria and that of the coveted office of the Vice President, which he once occupied, in the mud. This is unacceptable to us, and we will not henceforth sit down and watch him do such a thing.
“As stakeholders in the business of nation-building, we wish to use this medium to call on His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to utilise the authority conferred on him by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to protect the image and interest of the country by stripping Alh. Atiku Abubakar Sadiq of the national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON).
The group’s call comes after Atiku had alleged that Tinubu had forged his academic credentials and lied about his age.
