A former Commissioner for Information in Edo state, Prince Kassim Afegbua, on Tuesday said contrary to the impression being created by the opposition parties that the 2023 general elections were marred by irregularities, it remains the best election conducted in the history of Nigeria in terms of credibility and upsets it caused.
Speaking in an interview with worldviewafrica, Afegbua also said Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) deserves to win the presidential election as he was the only candidate who preached unity and how to deepen democracy unlike his rivals who were using ethnicity, religion and political differences to market themselves to Nigerians.
He said “It was a well deserved victory of a candidate who showed a pan-Nigeria approach in the electioneering campaigns. He was not detained by religion, ethnicity and other parochial considerations during the campaigns. He was preaching about Nigeria and what he thought Nigerians should do to sustain the dreams of the founding fathers”.
“ While others were preaching religion, accusing him of the Muslim-Muslim ticket, he was busy telling Nigerians what he would do to deepen democracy, and take the country to its Olympian Height. While others were preaching ethnicity, telling their kiths and kins to vote them on account of their ethnicity, Asiwaju Tinubu, the President-elect was busy carrying his message of renewed hope across the nooks and crannies of the country, with promises that would relaunch the country into global reckoning. For me, it was a victory well deserved”.
For those calling for the annulment of the election, Afegbua said “The opposition parties are also bad students of history, especially those asking for annulment of the election on the one hand and declaring them winners of the same election they have condemned as falling short of the conditionality of credible election”.
“When the 1993 election was annulled, some of them were the same characters who condemned the exercise and protested so vehemently as if they were Democrats. For failing to win this 2023 election, they have suddenly started asking for military interregnum just to convey the impression that the elections were marred by irregularities. Let me tell you something; since I have been participating in election starting from 1993, this election of 2023 remains the best in terms of credibility and the number of upsets it threw up”.
“It was the first time I was seeing sitting Governor losing election to the Senate. Seven serving Governors who wanted to become Senators lost elections woefully. That couldn’t have been possible without credible election; where a Personal Assistant was elected Senator in Edo State, an Okada rider defeating a popular musician in Lagos, where Asiwaju Tinubu was defeated in Lagos by the Labour Party candidate, how much of credibility do you want to see?”.
“I think the two major candidates, Atiku and Obi are bad losers. They need to wake up and take a patriotic position by congratulating the winner in the spirit of sportsmanship. We need to stabilise the polity for the new President-elect to be able to deliver his promises”.
“As per the tribunal, there is nothing that will come out of it, because the President-elect got votes across the country, to enjoy enough spread. It will help enrich our legal jurisprudence, but it won’t be the responsibility of the Judiciary to generate fresh votes when the people have spoken on the 25th February. We should never speak of another annulment after the unfortunate incident of 1993. The election has been won and lost”.
