THE Federal Government has warned former President Olusegun Obasanjo against truncating the 2023 general elections after he called for the cancellation of results in areas where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) failed.
Obasanjo made the demand in a letter on Monday, February 27, where he alleged that results of the 2023 Presidential Election had been manipulated.
In a statement signed by the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed on Tuesday, February 28, the Federal Government said Obasanjo’s letter was a calculated attempt to undermine the electoral process and a willful incitement to violence.
The minister expressed shock and disbelief that a former President could “throw around unverified claims and amplify wild allegations picked up from the street against the electoral process”.
Mohammed recalled that the former President, in his time, organised perhaps the worst elections since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999.
He said Obasanjo is the “least qualified to advise a President whose determined effort to leave a legacy of free, fair, credible and transparent election is well- acknowledged within and outside Nigeria”.
“As the whole nation waits with bated breath for the result of last Saturday’s national elections amid unnecessary tension created by professional complainants and political jesters, what is expected from a self-respecting elder statesman are words and actions that douse tension and serve as a soothing balm.
“Instead, former President Obasanjo used his unsolicited letter to insinuate, or perhaps wish for, an inconclusive elections and a descent into anarchy.
“He used his time to cast aspersion on electoral officials who are unable to defend themselves, while surreptitiously seeking to dress his personal choice in the garb of the people’s choice. This is duplicitous,’’ he said.
The minister reminded the former President that organising elections in Nigeria were “not a mean feat, considering that the voter population of 93,469,008 in the country is 16,742,916 more than the total number of registered voters, at 76,726,092, in 14 West African nations put together”.
He added : “With the deployment of over 1,265,227 electoral officials, the infusion of technology to enhance the electoral process and the logistical nightmare of sending election materials across our vast country, INEC seems to be availing itself creditably, going by the preliminary reports of the ECOWAS Electoral Observation Mission and the Commonwealth Observer Group, among other groups that observed the election”.
He further stressed that aggrieved persons should exercise restraint and allow the electoral body to conclude its duty.
”Therefore, those arrogating to themselves the power to cancel an election and unilaterally fix a date for a new one, ostensibly to ameliorate perceived electoral infractions, should please exercise restraint and allow the official electoral body to conclude its duty by announcing the results of the 2023 national elections.
“After that, anyone who is aggrieved must follow the stipulated legal process put in place to adjudicate electoral disputes, instead of threatening fire and conjuring apocalypse.”
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M