President Bola Tinubu, Sunday said he has rejected the report by the European Unions Electoral Observer Mission on the 2023 general elections, describing the final report as a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few persons.
The president said that he has many reasons to believe the “jaundiced report”, based on the views of fewer than 50 observers, “was to merely sustain the same premature denunciatory stance contained in EU’s preliminary report released in March.”
This was contained in a statement issued by Mr. Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, with the title, “We reject European Union’s conclusions on 2023 general elections.”
The President in the statement noted that some notable bodies like the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, and even the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, have commended the conduct and outcome of the election.
According to the statement, “Sometimes in May, we alerted the nation, through a press statement, to the plan by a continental multi-lateral institution to discredit the 2023 general elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“The main target was the presidential election, clearly and fairly won by the then candidate of All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“While we did not mention the name of the organisation in the said statement, we made it abundantly clear to Nigerians how this foreign institution had been unrelenting in its assault on the credibility of the electoral process, the sovereignty of our country and on our ability as a people to organise ourselves.
“We find it preposterous and unconscionable that in this day and age, any foreign organisation of whatever hue can continue to insist on its own yardstick and assessment as the only way to determine the credibility and transparency of our elections.
“Now that the organisation has submitted what it claimed to be its final report on the elections, we can now categorically let Nigerians and the entire world know that we were not unaware of the machinations of the European Union to sustain its, largely, unfounded bias and claims on the election outcomes.
“For emphasis, we want to reiterate that the 2023 general elections, most especially the presidential election, won by President Bola Tinubu/All Progressives Congress, were credible, peaceful, free, fair and the best organised general elections in Nigeria since 1999.”
The statement said that there was no substantial evidence by the EU or any foreign body that is viable enough to discredit the outcome of the polls.
It said, “There is no substantial evidence provided by the European Union or any foreign and local organisation that is viable enough to impeach the integrity of the 2023 election outcomes.
“It is worth restating that the limitation of EU final assessment and conclusions on our elections was made very bare in the text of the press conference addressed by the Head of its Electoral Observation Mission, Barry Andrews.