Abba Hamisu Sani
Africa-Press – Nigeria. Tinubu’s rejection of the European Union report on the 2023 election recently released is an indication of sentiment according to many political spectators in Nigeria.
The EU is one of the International organizations that actively participated in monitoring the 25th February Presidential poll which produced Bola Tinubu as the leader of the biggest democracy in Africa.
The election which was keenly contested by three Political parties that include ; the ruling All Progressives Congress with Ahmed Bola Tinubu (APC ), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with former vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party with Peter (LP) Peter Obi as it’s Candidate.
It could be recalled that Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes. His closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored 6,984,520 votes to emerge second in the election while Labour Party’s Peter Obi got a total of 6,101,533 .
The election was considered as the unique one compared to previous polls which were dominated by two parties since the return of democracy in 1999.
Election Observers view on 2023 elections
Different election observers that include domestic and foreign mission expressed their views on the election which they described as an election with low turnout. The national voter turnout was 29 per cent; no election had a lower participation rate in the six decades of Nigeria’s independence. Of the 93.4 million registered voters this year, 87.2 million people collected their Permanent Voters Card while the total number of actual voters on election day was only 24.9 million. Barely 9 million people voted for President to govern 220 million Nigerians.
European Union report on 2023 Election
Recently the leader of the European Union Election Observation Mission, EU-EOM, Barry Andrews, issued the Mission’s final report on the highly disputed 2023 general elections in Nigeria, with some hard knocks while making recommendations for improved elections in the future.
The final report was basically an affirmation of its initial report issued barely two days after the presidential/National Assembly elections on February 25, 2023.
The report noted the zeal with which Nigerians approached the election during the preparatory stages, as well as the economic, security and political atmospheres that prevailed which impacted voter behavior. It identified six priority areas requiring immediate attention to clean up Nigeria’s elections.
These included removing ambiguities in the electoral (which allowed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to change course and compromise the presidential election ; making the appointment of INEC top officials more accountable to the public, ensuring real-time publication of election results and making them accessible to the public, providing greater protection for media practitioners on election coverage and showing more commitment to punishment of electoral offenders.
Tinubu’s aggressive reaction to the EU’s Report
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).
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.
“Sometimes in May, we alerted the nation, through a press statement, to the plan by a continental multilateral 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 organization 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 organize ourselves” The statement added.
PDP and Labour Party Positions on the EU report
The two opposition parties described Tinubu’s rejection of the EU’s report as baseless. 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.
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 funds and then turn around to claim that the EU had no right to make comments on the election.
“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? .” He said.
While the 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.” He stated
The party said that in a statement released by Acting national Publicity Secretary of , Obiora Ifoh, it 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.
“Labour Party stands by the position of the EU observation mission. We have always said that this election was massively rigged in favor of the APC and their candidate.
What the Federal Government 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
Olawale Okunniyi is the National leader of the United Action Front of Civil Society, which is an umbrella for an organized Civil Society on issues of Governance and Democracy. He said the European Union report on Nigeria’s 2023 general elections calls for a sober reflection not grandstanding, sponsored protest and attacks.
He noted that the frenzy and undiplomatic attack and sponsored protest against the EU for making known its impartial observations of the flaws and criminality that characterized the February 25 presidential election in Nigeria was a clear demonstration of bad faith.
“The EU mission had, in its report, pointed out discrepancies noticed during the last general election and gave a poor rating on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) performance over the electoral process. But the Presidency insisted that the yardstick and assessment of the EU Mission cannot determine the credibility and transparency of the country’s elections” He said.
The activist said it is obvious that the Bola Tinubu-led Presidency is troubled by the burden of the flawed mandate it currently presides over but should be ready to take lessons from what the EU reported as a democratic government.
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