The inauguration and swearing-in of president-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu comes after all the fuss surrounding his electoral victory. The President-inauguration elects was in jeopardy after weeks of turmoil. Peter Obi’s supporters have been restless since the presidential election results were released and the winner was declared. They swore to stop Tinubu’s inauguration. The Obidients have gone all out for their candidate.
First, they spoke out inside and outside the country. Their diaspora supporters also protested the alleged stealing of Peter Obi’s mandate. They insist their candidate won the presidential election, and they said the poll was rigged for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and demanded their “stolen” mandate. Obedient groups appealed to the US and UK governments, asking them to ignore the presidential election results and not recognise Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner.
They pressured the US administration to stay away from the new regime. One of their US protests was in front of the US Capitol, a gloomy reminder of the mindless Donald Trump mob’s Capitol rebellion. Nigeria, especially Abuja, protested alongside the US. Peter Obi supporters protested outside the LP and PDP cases against Asiwaju. They also dominated social media, attacking anyone who disagreed with them on the presidential race. Their approaches are poor. They’re filthy, and they poison. They only know one method to defend Peter Obi and make their point—insults! They will insult and abuse you regardless of your age or expertise.
Chimamanda Adichie, a famous writer, pleaded to the US government for help defending her kinsman Peter Obi. She wants President Joe Biden’s government to ignore Asiwaju’s victory and back Obi’s swarms of followers who want the election results cancelled. But, the US still needs to respond to the letter.
Peter Obi supporters expected the US to derail Tinubu’s inauguration, which must be clarified. Many political watchers believe the US understands what it means for a country’s electoral board to proclaim a candidate the winner of its election, only for a group of people to protest and demand their preferred candidate be declared the winner. Once Trump lost the US presidential election, it did. You wouldn’t expect the US to participate in such illegality. Nobody was astonished they disregarded the calls except the Obidients.
They further stated that the unhappy candidates had gone to court, so why should the US government take sides and stand against the Nigerian people? The Joe Biden administration saw that the Obidients’ agitations did not represent the nation. International observers praised the election’s fairness.
Festus Keyamo led a strong APC delegation to the US to speak to the US administration and give them a better understanding of the election.
Keyamo told the US government that the Nigerian constitution needs a presidential candidate to win the most votes and at least one-quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the Federation’s states, including Abuja.
“Only Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu exceeded these standards, especially the spread (he scored 25% and above in 29 States), even though all 3 top contenders won 12 States each. “The PDP candidate earned 25% and above in just 21 States, falling short of the 24 States required, and the Labour Party candidate scored 25% and above in 15 States plus the Federal Capital Territory, making it 16 States,” Keyamo tweeted.
He denied cheating by arguing that his main opponents, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, were too unpopular to win under the constitution.
Keyamo, who was accompanied to Washington by Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports, and Ajuri Ngelale, assistant principal spokesperson, added that the elections were so credible that upsets like key ruling party members losing their home states or states of strength without state apparatus involvement were impossible.
“It is crucial to note that the elections were so credible that it threw up some upsets in our otherwise settled demography,” he remarked.
20 Governors, largely ruling party members, lost their States for the first time. Seven governors seeking Senate seats failed. Nigeria never experienced this. In addition, the President-Elect lost Lagos State, the sitting President lost Katsina State, the Director-General of the Campaign lost Plateau State, the ruling Party Chairman lost Nassarawa State, the Chairman of the Governor Forum lost Kebbi State, and the ruling party lost some of its traditional strongholds like Yobe, Kaduna, and Kano States. This indicates that it was a close election and one of the most trustworthy in our history.”
He claimed that Tinubu’s victory should be acknowledged as the outcome of an enhanced election process that used the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and iRev to sanitise the voting system and queried why a few polling units’ abnormalities could discredit the overall results.
“The reports of certain irregularities and violence in individual polling units could not have altered the overall outcome of the elections,” he said.
Nigeria has 176,974 polling units, and fewer than 1% had infractions and violence.
How could this have impacted election results? Nonetheless, 2023 had the lowest election casualty rate ever.
Election violence killed 200 people in 1964/65, 100 in 1993, 80 in 1999, 100 in 2003, and 300 in 2007.
“In 2011, 800 people died; in 2015, 100, and in 2019, 150. Election violence killed only 28 people in 2023. So, the “worst” election claim is false.
Keyamo reassured the opposition that BVAS only had a few technical issues in a few polling units, a claim corroborated by all local and international observers.
“All local and foreign observers graded BVAS very well, with one local group called YIAGA, working in coalition with the EU and other International Observers, reporting it registered 88% success in all the polling locations it monitored,” he stated.
The Nigeria Bar Association reported that only 8% of voters were dissatisfied with the procedure that day. The opposition made a big deal of IREV, a watching portal that has nothing to do with voter accreditation, verification, counting, or recording.
The US must’ve verified Keyamo’s claims. They chose, and the US government’s high-powered delegation at the inauguration is the result of that choice.
