– We are promoting Tinubu globally
Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress(APC) ,Dr. Olusegun Osinkolu has said that no amount political conspiracy from the opposition would stop Asiwaju Bola Ahmed from being inaugurated as the substantive President of Nigeria come May 29.
Specifically,the APC stalwart described the call for an Interim Government as mischievous and attempt to plunge the nation into to anarchy.
Osinkolu,former Senstorial aspirant in Ekiti State also decried the subversive tendencies of the opposition figures who,are plotting to pitch the international community against the President -elect .
He maintained that the whole world knew the election was credible, though not perfect.
According to him,” In those countries where opposition was running to seek refuge or help, their electoral processes are not perfect as well, this is one fact the purveyors of fake news should bear in mind. Those of us in the diaspora , who are Tinubu’s fans are also doing our best to promote him and Nigeria globally. So, no cause for alarm.
Condemning the plot, Osinkolu said “they are plotting to taint the outcome of the election through stage-managed protests and all manners of subterfuges. These won’t work because Nigeria is a sovereign state. We must be given unfettered freedom to conduct our affairs. I am also happy that the United Kingdom and United States and other international organisations that matters had congratulated the president-elect on his victory, so I see the antics of the opposition failing and falling flat in this regard.
” I see this as a call to anarchy. It was a mischievous call coming from desperate and inordinate democratic forces. How can over 20 million Nigerians filed out to vote on election day and one person was adjudged the winner and a few individuals, who because they failed in the poll now started calling for cancellation? It sounded so funny and sad.
Osinkolu said the agitations coming from these disgruntled elements showed that our democracy is just emerging. “There are laws guiding us, when an election is held and winner emerged, the aggrieved can only approach the election petition tribunal to seek redress. So, those seeking the overturning of the legal mandate given to Tinubu are anti-democratic forces who will never be tolerated. Asiwaju is carrying a divine mandate and no one can strip him of the right through extrajudicial means. They have to pass through the normal legal path.
“Let me say that Asiwaju’s victory portends a lot of good things for us in Nigeria. It shows that this country still remains one despite the ethnic and religious faultlines. It shows that Nigerian citizens still believe in competence and good antecedents in electing their leaders. If you dissect critically the spread of Asiwaju’s winning, you would see that he did well in the Southwest, southsouth, Northeast, Northcentral and Northwest.
” This shows that he remains the most detrabilised among all the contenders. The PDP’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar only did well in the Northeast and Northwest, while his counterpart in the Labour Party, Peter Obi did well in the Southsouth and Southeast with little or minimal presence in the Southwest and Northcentral. So, the Nigerian citizens had only taken the right step by voting for a candidate that enjoys national spread at a time we needed a unifier, who should bring all contending forces together and mend our religious and ethnic faultlines. To me and many others, Asiwaju’s victory is a blessing to Nigerians.
On the petitions filed against Tinubu’s victory, Osinkolu said “that is the best way to go. Going to court after election remains the international best practices, but Tinubu will emerge victorious. If you look at the spread of that election, you will see that it remains the best in the history of our democracy in 1999. There were a lot of surprises in the 2023 general election that had never happened in history. First, a sitting President failed to deliver for his party in his state. President Muhammadu Buhari lost to Atiku in Katsina. Even the APC Presidential candidate lost to Peter Obi in Lagos, a state his political machinery has controlled for 24 years. These are surprises that actually dogged the election. Governor Nasir El-Rufai lost in Kaduna. Even APC presidential campaign Director General , Governor Simon Lalong lost in plateau. Again, that was the first time a party like LP, without a councilorship won 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory. So, Nigerians must commend the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, rather than condemning him, in fact, he did a great job.
He also dismissed the allegation of over-voting in the results of the Presidential poll in Ekiti .” I think the INEC chairman had disproved this at the presidential collation centre in Abuja when it was raised by the PDP agent. Asiwaju got a total of 201,486 to defeat Atiku, who got 89,555 votes. The reason why Asiwaju got that quantum of votes was that, majority of opposition leaders, especially members of the PDP and SDP worked hard for Asiwaju in that election. The leader of the opposition in Ekiti and former Governor Ayodele Fayose had come out openly to corroborate what I am saying. So, the votes were freely given to Asiwaju in Ekiti, no case of rigging as being insinuated . In fact, he won in all the 16 local governments.”