The European Union’s appraisal of the 2023 general elections has courted the anger of members of the ruling party.
A group, Coalition of Civil Society Organisation for Tinubu-Shettima stormed the EU Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday in protest to demand the withdrawal of the report.
The European Union Electoral Observation Mission (EU-EOM) for the 2023 general elections led by Barry Andrews monitored the pre-election and post-election processes in Nigeria from January 11 to April 11, 2023, at the invitation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In its report, unveiled last week in Abuja, the team had indicted the electoral umpire as it declared that the process was marred with several irregularities.
Leader of the Coalition, Lillian Ene Ogbole who addressed newsmen at the EU Secretriat however claimed the report was a sinister agenda to rubbish the outcome of the process that produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President.
She further claimed that the EU report was capable of instigating insurrection, declaring that the security of Nigerians and its unity was under threat.
She claimed that the EU observers merely visited 1000 polling units out of 176000 before it formed its judgment on the election.
She said:” We are here with thousands of patriotic Nigerians who have come specifically to raise concern about the presentation and the report of the European Union concerning the just concluded elections.
“We have come to register unequivocally that we are not satisfied with the report of the European Union as a matter of fact, we are of the opinion that the report is not just ridiculous but a deliberate act to slide the Nigerian entity and of course by implications, our leaders and the government of Nigeria. We are all Nigerians here. We were all here during the just concluded election. But before I proceed further, I would like to say to you very clearly that there is nowhere election in the world that is devoid of crises and hitches. Every election in the world both in the United States of America, in Great Britain both in Ireland and even the European Union countries.
“Every election comes with its peculiar problems. Nigeria is not an inception. Yes, we are aware that the world is a global village therefore, people from different parts of the world converge in various countries during elections to monitor, observe and make presentations like the EU has done. But what we found unnecessary, what we found not worthy is the manner in which the report was made. The election that was just concluded in Nigeria that produced one of the men alive today in the person of his excellency, distinguished Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was one of the most transparent elections in the history of Nigeria.
“We were taken aback when the report came, the media was awash with the report of the European Union carefully and specifically saying that the election was fraudulent; that the election fell short of requirements of every credible election in the world. I don’t know where that one is coming from. If it is the election that we were all part of, that we all fought vigorously with our lives and everything we have as patriots and well-meaning Nigerians to ensure that the election is held, if it is the same election that the European Union spoke about, what we read then it means that something is fishy somewhere.
“You would also agree with me that the report of the European Union is enough to trigger a national problem, is enough to trigger national chaos, our security is at stake, our sovereignty is at stake, our unity is at stake. Nigeria is a great country in Africa, the most populated country in West Africa and the pride of the African countries. If the European Union is beginning to address our election and of course whatever is daring the way they have presented this report then we are scared. We are scared not just going to affect Nigeria as a country but is going to affect the whole of the African countries in the country.
“We are here to register our grievances, we are here to tell them that as of matter of urgency; they should withdraw their report and come up with the report that will be favourable to Nigeria.
“How on earth can just less than fifty people from the European Union come to Nigeria to observe an election where you have over 176000 polling units and then they go to less than 1000 polling units of election centres and they draw conclusions.?”
Alleging that the EU report was instigated by certain aggrieved politicians and power brokers in the country, the Tinubu– Shettima group said Nigeria is an independent nation and it would not allow itself to be led by external forces whom he claimed do not mean well for the country.
“We want to send a clear signal to them: if there are other Nigerians they are using as scapegoats to send a wrong signal about our country, we want to tell them to decease from that immediately. “Nigeria wants to measure up. With the European Union countries, Nigeria wants to be like the United States. Nigeria is striving seriously to be like every first and second country of the world. We will not henceforth condone any false report, we will not henceforth condone any manipulated result against our country.
It has happened in the past; what we are seeing is neo-colonialism in disguise and we would not allow that.
“We want to be a Sovereign country, we want to be an independent country, Independent in the true sense of it.
“We have a constitution that guides us, we have the constitution that set the tone and the constitution is what we must work on not by any speculations and fabrications and rumours from the international community.
“We are saying enough is enough. We have a president that is doing very well, we have a president that has started on a right footing, we have a president that is doing what several presidents in Nigeria have not been able to do. All that we need at this point is to support him. He is our Son, and we are his children, he is our leader and we willingly voted for him.
“No man, no woman, no country compel us to vote for him. It is our right to vote for him. It is our right to vote for the candidate of our choice and that was what exactly we exhibited in the last election. The election we all witnessed was free to an extent that was almost 100 percent free. It was an election that was devoid of many things we used to witness in the past.
“Our democracy is growing at an accelerated rate and we must warn the international community to take cognisance of that.
“We want to let them know that never again! Never again!! Never!!!”
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