Atiku Abubakar’s former presidential candidate and adviser, Phrank Shaibu, has praised the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) for its recent report on the most recent general election results.
Even elementary school students who did not cast a ballot are aware of how INEC failed and how Tinubu corrupted the last election, according to Mr. Shaibu.
Mr Shaibu responded to a federal administration statement criticizing the EU findings.
The president denied the claim and described it as “the result of a shoddy desk job” in a statement made public on Sunday by Dele Alake.
In its final assessment of the elections, the EU-EOM had said that the voting revealed persisting structural flaws and hence signalled the need for further legislative and administrative changes to improve transparency, inclusivity, and accountability.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was blamed by the mission’s chief observer, Barry Andrews, for the operational difficulties and hiccups with the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and the result viewing webpage.
Observing that the electoral commission had been unable to explain why it had declined to put the entire result on its viewing site around five months after the vote, Mr Shaibu said that the most recent election lacked legitimacy.
“Even though the presidential election was conducted on February 25, 2023, the results have yet to be published as of July 2, 2023. Even though it was the most costly election in West Africa’s history, this nevertheless happened.
“How can an election be characterized as credible by any rational human being when the entire results have not been properly uploaded after almost five months?”
The Nigerian government, he said, was acting hypocritically by accepting millions of euros in electoral funding from the EU only to afterwards assert that the EU had no right to comment on the election.
“The EU reported spending 39 million euros towards Nigeria’s 2023 elections in September last year. The majority of the funds were used to assist INEC’s election.
“The EU not only gave INEC employees training but also contributed equipment, allowing INEC to hold a chaotic election. Given that the EU was the most significant contributor to INEC, why would Alake assert that it has no right to speak? Mr. Alake would be better off keeping silent than attempting to defend the inadmissible.
According to Mr. Atiku’s assistant, the results in places like Rivers demonstrated that the election was not at all legitimate.
Notwithstanding the allegations of rigging levelled against him and a petition that is still ongoing against the former governor, he said it was unfortunate that Mr Tinubu intended to award former Governor Nyesom Wike with a cabinet position.
“As payment for that humiliating election, Tinubu is about to install Wike as a minister. Such a loss. And this is the one who claimed to have pushed for June 12’s implementation?
Mr Shaibu also urged the United States and the United Kingdom to move quickly to deny visas to those who manipulate elections.
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