Phrank Shaibu, the Special Assistant on Public Communications to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has said that the independence of the judiciary in the United States of America led to what he called President Bola Tinubu’s ultimate defeat at the Northern District of Illinois court.
Shaibu said this while reacting to the order by Justice Nancy Maldonado for the Chicago State University (CSU) to release all of Tinubu’s academic records to his principal and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria’s February 25 election.
He claimed that Tinubu had continued to evade justice since 1999 when the legendary human rights lawyer, late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), first blew the lid on his certificates scam.
The Atiku’s aide said rather than deliver justice on the merits of the case, judges had continued to give Tinubu victory based on technicalities, a development which had led to over 20 dubious victories.
Shaibu said it was unfortunate that the Nigerian judiciary had failed to live up to expectation as the last hope of the common man.
He said, “Justice Maldonado who has spent less than one year on the bench and who sat on this case for barely a month, has been able to do what the Nigerian judiciary could not do for 23 years. This explains why the Nigerian society is on the brink of slipping into the state of nature, which Thomas Hobbes described as short, brutish, and nasty.”
He, therefore, lambasted Tinubu’s lawyer and former National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Babatunde Ogala, SAN, for describing the US court victory as of no consequence.
Ogala had also compared the victory to masturbation, insisting that the judgement would have no consequence on Atiku’s appeal against Tinubu’s victory at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
But Shaibu, who described Ogala as a legal and intellectual Lilliputian, asked the Head of Tinubu’s Legal Team to bury his face in shame.
He said, “Ordinarily, we would not have responded to the words of a legal Lilliputian who has never won any landmark case in court and whose growth in the legal field is tied to the apron strings of a Chicago Bagman. However, the truth needs to be said for the sake of posterity.
“Louis Brandeis, US Supreme Court Judge may have had Ogala in mind when he wrote ‘…about the wickedness of people shielding wrongdoers and passing them off (or at least allowing them to pass themselves off) and then proposed a remedy that ‘If the broad light of day could be let in upon men’s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects.’
“It is unfortunate that Ogala glorifies technicality instead of justice. Ogala claimed that the victory was meaningless. So, why did his principal try to block the release of his credentials if he had nothing to hide? Why did he also appeal the initiatial judgment? The Bible says only the wicked runs when no one chases them. Why has Tinubu been blocking the release of his academic records for nearly 30 years?”
The Atiku’s media aide said Ogala’s outburst was based on his desperation to receive an appointment from Tinubu, having failed to make the cabinet list.
Shaibu added: “Ogala was lobbying to be the Attorney-General. He believed it was his birthright after defending Tinubu in court on several occasions. However, having only received the title of senior advocate two years ago without any remarkable or landmark cases under his belt, Tinubu opted for the more experienced Lateef Fagbemi.
“Since then, Ogala has been trying to ingratiate himself to Tinubu and is now standing logic on its head just to please his master. How pathetic!”
