PREMIUM TIMES
Contrary to the innuendos and aspersions being cast on it the 2023 presidential election is the most credible since 1999.
Contrary to the innuendos and aspersions being cast on the election by organisations such as Financial Times, Economist, New York Times, among others, we make bold to say that the 2023 presidential election is the most credible, most free and most fair national election in Nigeria since 1999.
In weeks and months leading to the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections, there were a rash of pre-election analysis, news reports, special features and even opinion polls from a number of partisan local pollsters and international media that gave victory to the candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi. Some of the polls were conducted online. Some polls had small samples that were not sufficiently representative of Nigeria’s diverse voting population and did not represent the realities of Nigeria’s political environment and factors that influence electoral behaviour.
But there were some other polls that correctly predicted the outcome, that our candidate was headed for victory. Our internal polls also gave us some measure of confidence. With 21 states under our party’s control, we did not expect a complete change of electoral behaviour, like in the US, where no one expects a blue state to suddenly turn red 100%.
With the eventual outcome of the election at variance with some of the Labour Party sponsored pre-election predictions, many international media organisations who took premature positions on the basis of these flawed polls, found themselves blind-spotted, leading to some of the skewed reports about the election.
We object to the mischaracterisation of the presidential election by a section of the international media.
Contrary to the innuendos and aspersions being cast on the election by organisations such as Financial Times, Economist, New York Times, among others, we make bold to say that the 2023 presidential election is the most credible, most free and most fair national election in Nigeria since 1999.
The elections into the Senate and House of Representatives were held the same day with the presidential election. They produced an outcome that showed our party winning majority seats in both chambers. None of the presidential candidates assailed the integrity of these other elections.
Similarly, the presidential election produced the expected outcome.
Anyone who is honest enough and understands the political landscape of Nigeria and the forces at play in electing a president in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria will know that only Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and APC could have won the election.
