· Says report biased, flawed, borne out of inadequate coverage
· Atiku’s aide: Report shows Tinubu rigged poll, lambasts presidency
· EU’s account corroborates our position, international observers, says Labour Party
Deji Elumoye and Emameh Gabriel in Abuja
The presidency has flayed the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission (EOM) report on the 2023 general election, saying it is an attempt to ridicule the Nigerian electoral system and its umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the election, Phrank Shaibu, hailed the EU Election Monitoring Group for stating in its report that the last election was, indeed, fraught with electoral irregularities and failed to meet the minimum standard of credibility. Shaibu lambasted President Bola Tinubu and his aide, Dele Alake, for trying to discredit a clearly credible report.
Similarly, Labour Party (LP) said the EU report was impeccable and reflected the true position of majority of the electorate. In a statement signed by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, LP said the federal government’s effort to discredit the report was a failed attempt at face-saving.
Chief Observer of EU EOM, Barry Andrews, had at a news conference in Abuja last week presented its final report on the 2023 general election in Nigeria, noting areas where the Nigerian electoral system should be reformed. The report suggested that the country’s electoral system needed legal and systemic reforms, saying failures in these areas affected public trust in INEC.
But reacting to the report yesterday, the presidency stated that the process and factors that produced the EU EOM report were faulty. It added that the parameters used by the body exposed its inadequacies and inability to conduct a credible monitoring.
In a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake, the presidency also argued that the said report was predetermined. It recalled that the EU group had manifested signs of bias earlier in the run up to the elections. It alleged that the report was merely collated to justify the group’s already manifested bias against the system.
The presidency rejected the EU EOM report for its alleged inability to adequately reflect the largest and true picture of the elections, especially the presidential election. It cited inadequate coverage by the body, which it claimed was only able to deploy 40 election observers to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The government said EU EOM based its judgment on incidences from less than 1,000 polling units out of 176,000 polling units.
According to the presidency, the 2023 general election was the freest and most credible in the country since the advent of the current democracy in 1999.
According to the statement, “Sometimes in May, we alerted the nation, through a press statement, to the plan by a continental multi-lateral institution to discredit the 2023 general election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The main target was the presidential election, clearly and fairly won by the then candidate of All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“While we did not mention the name of the organisation in the said statement, we made it abundantly clear to Nigerians how this foreign institution had been unrelenting in its assault on the credibility of the electoral process, the sovereignty of our country and on our ability as a people to organise ourselves.
“We find it preposterous and unconscionable that in this day and age, any foreign organisation of whatever hue can continue to insist on its own yardstick and assessment as the only way to determine the credibility and transparency of our elections.
“Now that the organisation has submitted what it claimed to be its final report on the elections, we can now categorically let Nigerians and the entire world know that we were not unaware of the machinations of the European Union to sustain its, largely, unfounded bias and claims on the election outcomes.
“For emphasis, we want to reiterate that the 2023 general elections, most especially the presidential election, won by President Bola Tinubu/All Progressives Congress, were credible, peaceful, free, fair and the best organised general elections in Nigeria since 1999.”
The presidency added, “There is no substantial evidence provided by the European Union or any foreign and local organisation that is viable enough to impeach the integrity of the 2023 election outcomes.
“It is worth restating that the limitation of EU final assessment and conclusions on our elections was made very bare in the text of the press conference addressed by the Head of its Electoral Observation Mission, Barry Andrews.
“While addressing journalists in Abuja on the so-called final report, Andrews noted that EU-EOM monitored the pre-election and post-election processes in Nigeria from January 11 to April 11, 2023 as an INEC accredited election monitoring group. Within this period, EU-EOM observed the elections through 11 Abuja-based analysts, and 40 election observers spread across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“With the level of personnel deployed, which was barely an average of one person per state, we wonder how EU-EOM independently monitored election in over 176,000 polling units across Nigeria.
“We would like to know and even ask EU how it reached the conclusions in the submitted final report with the very limited coverage of the elections by their observers who, without doubt, relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads.
“We are convinced that what EU-EOM called final report on our recent elections is a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1,000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day.
“We have many reasons to believe the jaundiced report, based on the views of fewer than 50 observers, was to merely sustain the same premature denunciatory stance contained in EU’s preliminary report released in March.
“We strongly reject, in its entirety, any notion and idea from any organisation, group and individual remotely suggesting that the 2023 election was fraudulent.”
The presidency, however, expressed satisfaction that other observers of the election from both local and international organisations, which it dubbed credible, had affirmed that the last general election was the freest since 1999.
The statement said some credible organisations, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which is made up of renowned and senior legal practitioners, also monitored the elections, deployed adequate observers to every nook and cranny of the country, and had released reports that gave nothing less than over 90 per cent success to the elections and INEC itself.
The statement said, “Our earlier position that the technology-aided 2023 general elections were the most transparent and best organised elections since the return of civil rule in Nigeria has been validated by all non-partisan foreign and local observers, such as the African Union, ECOWAS, Commonwealth Observer Mission, and the Nigerian Bar Association.
“Unlike EU-EOM that deployed fewer than 50 observers, the Nigerian Bar Association that sent out over 1,000 observers spread across the entire country for same election, gave a more holistic and accurate assessment of the elections in their own report.
“NBA, an organisation of eminent lawyers and an important voice within the civic space, reported that 91.8 per cent of Nigerians rated the conduct of the national and state elections as credible and satisfactory. Any election that over 90% of the citizens considered transparent should be celebrated anywhere in the world.
“It is heart-warming that INEC, through its National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, has come out to defend the integrity of the election it conducted by rejecting the false narratives in the EU report.
“It is also gratifying that the electoral umpire, as an institution that is open to learning and continuous improvements, has also committed to taking on board more ideas, innovation and reforms that will further enhance the integrity and credibility of our electoral process.”
The release noted that despite the European body’s negative verdict, Nigerians had seen the quality of leadership being provided by the winner of the presidential election, President Bola Tinubu, and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The release said, “As a country, we have put the elections behind us. President Tinubu is facing the arduous task of nation-building, while those who have reasons to challenge the process continue to do so through the courts.
“In just one month in office, Nigerians appear satisfied with the decisive leadership of President Tinubu and the manner he is redirecting the country to the path of fiscal sustainability and socio-economic reforms. We urge the EU and other foreign interests to be objective in all their assessments of the internal affairs of our country and allow Nigeria to breathe.”
EU Report Shows Tinubu Rigged Election, Says Atiku’s Aide
Atiku’s aide, Phrank Shaibu, lambasted Tinubu and Alake for trying to discredit the EU report. Shaibu said even the dead knew that the last election lacked credibility and even INEC had been unable to explain why nearly five months after the election, it had refused to upload the full result on its result viewing portal.
He said, “Even primary school children, who did not vote, know that INEC failed woefully and that Tinubu rigged the last election.
“The presidential election held on February 25, 2023, and yet as of July 2, 2023, the result of the presidential election has not been fully uploaded. This is despite the fact that this election was the most expensive in the history of West Africa.
“How can an election in which the full results have not been fully uploaded after nearly five months be described as credible by any sane human being?”
Shaibu described as nonsensical Alake’s claim that EU was a meddlesome interloper for discrediting the poll. He said it was hypocritical of the Nigerian government to receive millions of dollars from the EU as election fund and then turn around to claim that the EU had no right to make comments on the election.
He stated, “The EU said in September last year that it budgeted 39 million euros for Nigeria’s 2023 election. Most of the funding went to INEC as election support.
“The EU not only provided training for INEC staff but also donated equipment, only for INEC to conduct a shambolic poll. So why would Alake claim that the EU has no right to speak when it was the largest single donor to INEC? Mr Alake should rather be quiet rather than try to defend the indefensible.”
Atiku’s aide further argued that the results in states, like Rivers, showed that the election was far from credible.
He said it was tragic that Tinubu was planning on rewarding former Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State with a ministerial portfolio, despite the accusations of rigging levelled against him as well as a pending petition against Wike, which had attracted nearly 300,000 votes.
Shaibu added, “The presidential election in Rivers State was clearly rigged, as evidenced by what INEC has uploaded on IREV. So far, nearly 300,000 Nigerians have signed a petition on change.org demanding visa bans against Governor Wike.
“Tinubu is now on the verge of appointing Wike as a minister as a reward for that disgraceful election. What a shame. And this is the character who claimed to have fought for the actualisation of June 12?”
Shaibu called on the United States and the United Kingdom to speed up the process of imposing visa bans on election riggers. He asked the two countries to reveal the identities of those implicated in election rigging, especially staff of INEC and members of APC.
He said, “The report of European Union Election Observation Team, like all other reports on the 2023 presidential election, is not different from the facts our legal team, led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, have placed before their lordships at the Presidential Elections Petitions Court.
“We are encouraged by the presence of the manifold brave and audacious men and women of the Bench in our judiciary. We know that, very soon, those distinguished and imperial dispensers of justice in our present day judiciary shall deliver a judgement that will be pure as the driven snow and not tainted by gravies and or bullied by coercion from characters with iniquitous power.”
EU’s Position Corroborates Our Stand, International Observers, Says Labour Party
Labour Party (LP) stated that the report of the European Union on the 2023 presidential election was faultless and reflected the view of most Nigerian voters. LP described the statement by the federal government, which tried to discredit the EU’s conclusion, as
face-saving and medicine after death.
In a statement by Acting National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, the party drew the attention of the government to the fact that the EU report was “only one out of numerous submissions by other international observers who have described the outcome of the election as a sham and an exercise that did not reflect the will of the majority of Nigerians”.
Obiora said, “Labour Party stands by the position of the EU observation mission. We have always said that this election was massively rigged in favour of the APC and their candidate.
“What the FG is saying is just an afterthought and a shameless effort to mask the obvious. Even the blind can see, the deaf can hear, and they know this election was manipulated.”
Obiora said “huge pieces of evidence abound for even the deaf and the blind to hear and feel”.
He said the party was only hoping that the judiciary will dispense justice without fear or favour in the interest of the nation and posterity.
LP stated, “Nigerians already know the true winner of the 2023 presidential election and no amount of slandering, denial, or rebuttal can change the fact that the party in power has no mandate of the electorate.
“We must also note that whatever position the INEC has taken is with active connivance with the federal government to deny the electorate and it clearly shows that INEC is not in any way independent. The commission’s action is at the whims and caprices of the government and we know it.
“But Nigerians are looking to the judiciary for justice. That’s where we stand.”
