Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN) on Friday justified the congratulatory call made by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu saying it is a testament to the fact that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won the 2023 presidential election convincingly.
In a post on his official Twitter handle, Keyamo who served as the Chief Spokesperson of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council also faulted the statement made by Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential candidate who has expressed displeasure over Blinken’s call to Tinubu.
Obi had said that since the 2023 presidential election was still being contested in the court, the US was expected “to await the full resolution of the ongoing judicial processes before tacitly conferring legitimacy on any of the contending parties.”
However, in his response, Keyamo said the US congratulated Tinubu because they believe Obi lost the election.
The full statement reads “Your Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, I am sorry, but there is clarity as to the basis of the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken’s call to @officialABAT and their pledge for support and cooperation. It’s obvious that you and your supporters have overrated your noise and tantrums after the election as having any real effect internationally. No, they have not had any such massive effect as you would wish”.
” Unfortunately for you, the US have dealt with so many opposition figures around the world and they know exactly how to separate facts from fictions. They know you lost, fair and square. They know that in a complex society like Nigeria you could not have won with your message of ‘religious war’. They know you’re just a splinter of the main opposition, the PDP, so it amounts to delusions of grandeur to think that you won when you actually came third”.
“They also know the declaration of a winner already announced by INEC has the force of law and is the only acceptable legal framework upon which to proceed than your Petition in court that is yet to be decided upon. You really want this country to stand still because you have a case in court? Is that what we have practiced in this country for decades?”.
“Recall, sir, that when you won your second term in office as Governor of Anambra State, your opponents were in the Tribunal when you were sworn in and you got congratulatory messages from across Nigeria and the world. Did you reject those congratulatory messages because your opponents were in court? Why are you now misleading these largely hapless mob trooping blindly after you? Why?”
“As you are going about with this pretentious holier-than-thou attitude, a court of law just nullified the nomination of a number of your Party’s candidates at the last election. Are you not more worried about this development, even as it affects your own nomination as the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate?”
“Mr. Peter Obi, your pontifications about the last Presidential election are getting very worrisome. They are beneath you. They are designed only to appeal to the mob. You know you lost the election; we know you know; and you know we know that you know. Please, come down from your high horse”.
