Atiku attributed the current economic challenges facing Nigeria to what he described as the “haphazard and disingenuous approach” of the Tinubu administration to fuel subsidy management.

In his statement, Atiku expressed concern about the escalating inflation rate, stating that it is severely impacting the lives of Nigerians.

He lamented that despite the growing hardships, Tinubu appears unfazed by the plight of the citizens.

The haphazard and disingenuous approach of the current administration to fuel subsidy management has been the reason we are in this current economic crisis in the country.

“As things stand, there will be no let up in the escalating inflation rate, which is drowning the material well-being of Nigerians. It is even more worrying that T-pain is undisturbed by the hardship in the country,” Atiku wrote.

The nickname ‘TPain’ for Tinubu emerged as a play on the first letter of his name and the name of American rapper and producer T-Pain, sparked by frustrations over the rising cost of living under his administration.

According to Peoples Gazette, the earliest mention of the term on social media dates back to April 2024.

However, it gained significant traction around September 16, after a user on X used it while discussing the President’s visit to Maiduguri to console flood victims.

The term has gained traction on platforms like X and Instagram

The policy, announced by Education Minister Prof. Tahir Mamman on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, mandates that individuals under 18 years old will be barred from participating in National Examinations Council (NECO) and West African Examinations Council (WAEC) exams.

Mamman stated that WAEC and NECO have been directed to enforce this 18-year age requirement for exam candidates.

In a response posted on X, Atiku criticized the policy as outdated and detrimental to educational progress in Nigeria.

He argued that the policy represents a regressive step for the country’s educational system and reflects poorly on the current government’s approach to education.

Atiku’s statement read, “Tinubu’s policy on age limits for tertiary education admission belongs in the Stone Ages. This policy is an absurdity and a disincentive to scholarship.

It contradicts the principles of federalism and highlights the government’s lack of direction.”

He further noted that the Nigerian constitution allows sub-national governments more authority over education matters, making the federal government’s decree-like action unconstitutional.

Atiku also criticized the government’s failure to address the needs of exceptionally gifted students, deeming it an embarrassment to Nigeria’s intellectual community.

“The best global practices involve allowing regional governments to establish education policies,” Atiku added. “This controversial policy should be universally condemned by anyone who values intellectual freedom and accessibility.”

Okoro handed down the admonition during the hearing of the election petition appeals filed by Atiku and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

He stated this following the submission of Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, urging the court to admit the fresh evidence brought by the petitioners.

In his bid to nullify Tinubu’s victory and prove the allegation that he was not qualified to contest the presidential poll, Atiku had prayed to an Illinois Chicago district court to order the Chicago State University to release the President’s academic records.

The former vice-president had accused Tinubu of falsifying the CSU diploma of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration awarded in 1979 that he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The Supreme Court Registrar, Zainab Garba, in a notice issued to the parties on Thursday, disclosed that the hearing proceedings in Atiku’s appeal would take place before the Supreme Court sitting in Abuja on October 23.

It read, ‘’Take notice that the above appeal/motion will be listed for hearing before the Supreme Court of Nigeria sitting at Abuja on Monday, October 23, 2023.

“And further take notice that in accordance with Order 2 Rule 1(2) of the Supreme Court Rules 1985, as amended, this notice is deemed sufficiently served on you if it is left at your address of service or sent by registered post and since the date of service by post is material, section 26 of the Interpretation Act, 1964, shall apply.”

The Supreme Court Director of Information, Dr Festus Akande, also confirmed that Atiku’s election appeal had been slated for hearing on Monday.

The notification came as the House of Representatives expressed worries over the workload on the apex court.

The apex court currently has 11 justices, short of the required 21 stipulated by section 230(2) of the 1999 Constitution.

The green chamber resolved to call on the Federal Government to appoint new judges for the Supreme Court to ensure effective justice delivery in the country.

The resolution of the House followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by Patrick Umoh, the lawmaker representing Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State.

In the motion tagged, ‘Urgent need for the Federal Government to appoint new justices to the Supreme Court to ensure expeditious and effective justice delivery in the country,’ Umoh noted that “The Supreme Court of Nigeria is the apex court in the country with the jurisdiction to hear and determine causes and matters across the length and breadth of Nigeria.”

In its resolution, the House urged “The Federal Government to appoint nine new justices to the Supreme Court in order to expedite the hearing and determination of matters for effective and efficient justice delivery in Nigeria.”

It also mandated its Committee on Federal Judiciary to ensure compliance with the resolution.

Umoh had before the House resolution observed that the current number of justices of the apex court had dropped to an all-time low of 11 Justices, making it 10 justices short of its full complement of 21 justices, as stipulated by the Constitution.

The resolution read, “This is post-election season where the court has to hear and determine electoral matters from different parts of the country within a short period of time as mandated by the Constitution.

The CSU released the documents to Atiku on Monday in compliance with the order of a United States District Court in Northern District of Illinois.

In ordering the CSU to release Tinubu’s academic record, a US district judge dismissed the President’s objection.

The judge ruled: “For the foregoing reasons, the court overrules President Tinubu’s objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert’s recommended ruling, and therefore, adopts the ruling in full. Mr Atiku’s Application is, therefore, granted. In light of the pending Supreme Court of Nigeria deadline, represented to the court as October 5, 2023, and based on CSU’s representations that it is ready to comply with the discovery requests and produce a witness, the court sets an expedited schedule for completion of discovery.

Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for Production Nos. The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Given the October 5, 2023, filing deadline before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the court will not extend or modify these deadlines.”

In the CSU documents, which went viral late Monday night, the institution responded to Atiku’s four requests.

Responding to Atiku’s request for “A true and correct copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979 to Mr Tinubu,” the US varsity said: “CSU does not, in the ordinary course, keep copies of student diplomas, and after the diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979, hence, has no documents responsive to this request.”

Atiku intends to use the CSU academic record in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court where he is challenging Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election.

But Tinubu’s legal team has argued that the documents would be of no use at the Supreme Court.

But Tinubu’s lawyers insisted that the documents would not be relevant in Atiku’s appeal against Tinubu at the Supreme Court.

Atiku had earlier secured an order from a US magistrate for CSU to make Tinubu’s academic records available to his legal team.

The magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, had ordered Tinubu’s alma mater to provide all relevant and non-privileged documents to Atiku’s legal team within two days.

The documents sought by the PDP candidate, through his counsel, Angela Liu, include Tinubu’s record of admission and acceptance at the Chicago State University, dates of attendance as well the degrees, awards, and honours obtained by  Tinubu from the CSU.

But as the deadline given by the magistrate drew nearer, Tinubu’s lawyers approached the US high court, arguing that the earlier decision by the magistrate needed to be reviewed by a district judge.

The request for a review and delay of the magistrate’s order till Monday was eventually granted by the US district judge.

Tinubu’s application, filed by his New York-based lawyer, Oluwole Afolabi,  advanced two reasons.

First is that his academic records in issue are not useful in Nigerian courts as claimed by Atiku because “the Nigerian election proceedings and the Nigerian courts have explicitly been unreceptive to the discovery.”

His second reason is that Atiku’s request “is unduly intrusive because it allows the applicant (Atiku) to conduct a fishing expedition into the intervenor’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.”

The former vice president in a fresh response filed last Wednesday, in Chicago, Illinois, charged the court to overrule Tinubu’s request in its entirety.

In a fresh judgment obtained by The PUNCH on Sunday, Maldonado noted that CSU did not object to Judge Jeffery Gilbert’s decision that the academic record be made public.

The court held that Atiku’s interest outweighs any intrusion on Tinubu’s privacy interests in his educational records.

The judge overruled Tinubu’s objections to the ruling by the magistrate ordering CSU to make his academic records available to Atiku.

Judge Gilbert also adopted the magistrate’s ruling in full.

The memorandum opinion and order read in part:  “For the foregoing reasons, the court overrules President Tinubu’s objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert’s recommended ruling, and therefore, adopts the ruling in full.

“Mr Atiku’s Application is, therefore, granted. In light of the pending Supreme Court of Nigeria deadline, represented to the court as October 5, 2023, and based on CSU’s representations that it is ready to comply with the discovery requests and produce a witness, the court sets an expedited schedule for completion of discovery.

“Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for Production Nos. The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Given the October 5, 2023, filing deadline before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the court will not extend or modify these deadlines.

However, the judge stressed that his verdict “is expressing no view on the merits of Mr. Abubakar’s underlying claims regarding President Tinubu or his graduation from CSU, or on the validity of the Nigerian election. Nor is the court taking any position on what any of the documents or testimony from CSU may or may not ultimately show.”

“The court simply finds, on the narrow question before it, that Mr Atiku is entitled to the production of documents and testimony that he seeks from CSU,” he said.

The hearing came up late Thursday night after the president’s lawyers filed an emergency motion seeking a delay in the implementation of the self-effectuating order directing the CSU to comply with Atiku’s subpoenas till Monday.

A magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, had on Tuesday ordered Tinubu’s alma mater to provide all relevant and non-privileged documents to the applicant, Atiku, within two days.

Documents sought by the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, through his counsel, Angela Liu, include the record of admission and acceptance at the university, dates of attendance including degrees, awards, and honours attained by the former governor of Lagos State at the university, among others.

But the president’s attorneys had argued that the earlier decision by Gilbert needed to be reviewed by a district judge.

Coordinator of Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala, disclosed that what they sought was a review and not an appeal as being peddled in the media.

To further buttress his point, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria emphasised that the US magistrate does not have the power to give an order given to the university to release non-privileged information, adding that he can only make a recommendation.

“As I am talking to you, I am in America and on top of this matter. Our people are just making issues out of nothing. What did the magistrate do? I think we need to understand the American procedure. The magistrate is to make a recommendation to the district judge and not to give a final order. No, he cannot. He has no such power. And that is what we are saying to the district judge. They are to make a recommendation, which must be within 48 hours.

“In anyway, what is the issue here? Whatever you said you wanted, the court said ‘release non-privileged’. After all, they have confirmed that the man attended their school, and got his letter of admission as well as first, second, third, and fourth semester results. They have admitted it is their certificate, and you (court) are now coming to say they should release the information. For what exactly? They brought his application for admission.

“What we are even saying is this. We are not filing an appeal but asking for a review against Monday for the judge to pronounce. We are providing the judge with additional information to say the person they have granted this order was granted purportedly because he said that he wants to use it to pursue his litigation in Nigeria. There is nothing to appeal as it does not show anything to suggest that he is bringing anything from America. Is that not fraudulent? That’s our contention,” he said.

Few hours after Ogala spoke with our correspondent, his request for a review and delay of the order till Monday was granted by the US district judge.

In the emergency hearing, Maldonado disclosed that mindful of legal deadlines in Nigeria, she would rule on the matter as quickly as possible.

She said, “I will have a busy weekend. The issue is of process and rules. I’m a rule person. That’s why I’m a judge. This case is quite involved. I am aware of the stakes. It’s more important to me to get this right.”

Their lead counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), mentioned this at the resumed hearing of the petition on Tuesday.

The petitioners, according to a pre-hearing schedule drafted by the court, were given three weeks to prove their case, which elapsed on Tuesday.

However, they were granted two extra days, to make up for the two days they lost in the course of the proceedings for different reasons.

One of the lost days was June 12, which was declared a public holiday in celebration of Democracy Day.

Although the petitioners had, during the preliminary hearing in the case, stated that they would call 100 witnesses in aid of their petition, they have so far called 25.

Addressing newsmen after the Tuesday session, Uche said, “We are closing our case on Thursday. It was supposed to end today but because we lost two days, one of which was the June 12 public holiday, the court graciously extended our time by two days.”

The SAN said some of the documents they will tender in the last two days would take the place of the remaining 75 witnesses.

Earlier at the Tuesday’s proceedings, the PDP’s session before the court was ended prematurely after the court complained that the documents which the petitioners sought to tender were not properly sorted out.

The court disagreed with their move to tender a Form EC8A series, which are polling units results beginning from Abia State.

In his defence, Uche told the PEPC that it was difficult to get electoral materials including Form EC8As from INEC on time.

He asked the court to admit the documents in evidence pending the proper numbering by lawyers to parties and the court registry after the close of the day’s proceedings.

But INEC’s lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), disagreed with Uche’s position.

The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led panel told Uche that it was the duty of his legal team to create a schedule of the documents after INEC had produced them through a subpoena.

The court adjourned the matter till Thursday for the continuation of the hearing.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, called fielded a  cloud engineer and architect, Clarita Ogar, as a witness.

The witness was cross-examined by the respondents’ counsel.

In the petition marked CA/PEPC/05/2023 the PDP and Atiku are challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Listed as 1st to 3rd respondents in the petition are the Independent National Electoral Commission, Bola Tinubu, and the APC.

The pre-hearing in the petition was taken first on Thursday morning after counsel for Atiku and PDP, Chris Uche SAN indicated an interest in the matter.

“I have the permission of Wole Olanikpekun to indicate interest first in number 2,” he said.

The Chairman, PDP PCC in Rivers State, Senator Lee Maeba, gave the explanation during a media briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday.

Maeba recalled that there had been several attacks against PDP members and Atiku’s supporters in the last three months in the state.

He also claimed that the Rivers State Government had sealed the businesses of prominent members of the party who supported the presidential candidate’s election bid.

He said, “On December 14, 2022, one Rhino Owhohaire, the Youth Director, Atiku/Okowa Campaign Council, was shot in his village of Alu in the Ikwerre Local Government Area, and the incident was reported to the police high command, but nothing happened.

“Even when a suspect was arrested, the government of Rivers State, as an interested accomplice, went and took him on bail.

“On February 5, 2023, 31 members of the Atiku Support Group were arrested at their meeting venue at the GRA, Port Harcourt, arraigned and remanded at the correctional centre in Port Harcourt on trumped-up charges of unlawful assembly, conspiracy, and cultism.

On February 9, 2023, Abiye Sekibo was informed that the venue earmarked for the PDP presidential campaign rally was on fire at Rainbow Town in Port Harcourt.

“He (Sekibo) was attacked when he went to verify the accuracy of the information. The attack was carried out by the police attached to the Government House in Port Harcourt.

“Fortunately, he escaped unhurt by the divine providence of God, but his vehicle was fatally damaged by a rain of bullets.”

He said despite previously giving the PDP an approval to use Adokiye Amesiamaka Stadium for its presidential rally, Governor Nyesom Wike “cancelled the approval on the flimsy excuse that we wanted to hold a joint rally with APC in Rivers State on the approved date of February 11, 2023, to foment trouble.”

Maeba added, “The governor, using Government House police and other hoodlums, has unleashed unrelenting violence, making the peaceful use of the facility impossible, among other things.

“In light of the above submission, we, the state Campaign Council, in total constructive engagement with the National Presidential Campaign Council, the candidate, and the party, believe that no loss of human life can be tolerated or accepted before, during, or after the rally and have agreed with our principals on the need to shelve and/or cancel the rally to avoid any deaths.”