*The Federal Government of Nigeria describes ex-President (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo as ‘a known partisan’, urges him to not truncate the ongoing 2023 General Elections with his ‘inciting, self-serving and provocative letter’ over last Saturday’s national polls

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

The Federal Government has urged former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to truncate the 2023 General Elections with his “inciting, self-serving and provocative letter” on the elections.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, in a statement issued Tuesday, February 28, said what the erstwhile 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 among Nigerians.

Mohammed also noted the government expressed shock and disbelief that a former President of the country 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.”

The Federal Government further stated that in Obasanjo’s time as President, he organised perhaps the worst elections since Nigeria’s return to

democratic rule in 1999.

According to Mohammed, 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.”

He also said: “Instead, a 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.”

The Minister reminded the former President that organising 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 explained that “with a 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.

“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.”

The Minister added in the statement: “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.”