By Ebi Kesiena
The Federal Government has disclosed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo has cunningly attempted to undermine the electoral process and has committed a deliberate act to incite violence in the country.
In a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed urged former President Obasanjo not to truncate the 2023 General Elections with his inciting, self-serving and provocative letter on the elections.
Recall that the former Nigerian leader in a letter titled, “An appeal for caution and rectification” alleged that some officials of INEC have collected “blood money” while the BVAS has “been manipulated or rendered inactive.”
According to Mohammed, what the former President cunningly framed as an ‘appeal for caution and rectification’ is nothing but a calculated attempt to undermine the electoral process and a willful incitement to violence.
Signed by Special Assistant to the President, Media Segun Adeyemi, 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.
”Though masquerading as an unbiased and concerned elder statesman, former President Obasanjo is in reality a known partisan who is bent on thwarting, by subterfuge, the choice of millions of Nigerian voters,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed recalled that the former President, in his time, organized perhaps the worst election since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, hence he 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 election and a descent into anarchy; 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 organizing elections in Nigeria is 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.
Mohammed therefore appealed to all aggrieved bodies to please exercise restraint and allow the official electoral body to conclude its duty by announcing the results of the 2023 national elections.
”Anyone who is aggrieved must follow the stipulated legal process put in place to adjudicate electoral disputes, instead of threatening fire and conjuring apocalypse,” he said.
