The ruling All Progressive Congress APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has urged his closest opponents in last Saturday’s presidential election, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan and admit defeat.
It is worth recalling that in 2015, Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to General Muhammadu Buhari, even before the compilation of the presidential election results was completed.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu also warned the PDP and LP against calling for the exercise to be cancelled, saying the election is like a pregnancy that cannot be aborted when it has reached full term.
The APC flag-bearer also accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of trying to curtail the national democracy by calling for the annulment of election results in some parts of the country.
At a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Special Adviser on Media, Public Affairs, and Strategic Communications, Mr Dele Alake, said Obasanjo’s appeal was based on unsubstantiated allegations, rumours, and allegations of fraud by opposition parties led by the PDP and LP, who have seen that they have lost the election and would rather see Nigeria’s hard-won democracy mutilated on the altar of their lies.
He said;
“You must also be aware of the gang up by the PDP and Labour Party, whose agents walked out of the National Collation Centre in Abuja on Monday. Today, they continued their conspiracy to truncate our 24-year democratic journey by raising unfounded allegations against INEC, casting aspersions on the whole electoral process, and forgetting the process had handed them unexpected victories in some states.
“We have always suspected that Labour Party and PDP are the same, only divided by individual inordinate ambition. We want to remind them that election is a process like pregnancy. Like a pregnancy that has reached full term, it cannot be aborted. We are not in 1993 when June 12 was aborted by similar forces. It is too late to do so.
“The APC-PCC wants to say emphatically that former President Obasanjo has no moral right to meddle in this election let alone call for its cancellation because he is an interested party having publicly, on January 1 this year, endorsed the candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi.
“Although we stand by our position as stated yesterday not to jump the protocol governing the announcement of the election results and allow Independent National Electoral Commission to perform its constitutional duty, we want to tell the gathering anti-democratic forces that we have the strength, the determination and the will to protect and defend this process and the soon-to-be-formally announced mandate freely given to our party and Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.
“We are very well aware of the plan of the PDP and their Labour Party collaborators to heighten tension in the country and create a general state of fear through their sponsored Television and Radio surrogates who continue to push false narratives about the general conduct of the election. We are also aware of the coordinated assault aimed at discrediting the whole electoral process and the integrity of INEC by their so-called paid and partisan agents who wear the toga of Election Observers.
“We consider Obasanjo’s failed attempt to scuttle the process through his unsolicited advice to President Muhammadu Buhari to cancel the election as part of the grand orchestration of many evil plots to truncate democracy in Nigeria.
“The integrity of the electoral process has been attested to by the international observers such as the Commonwealth, ECOWAS, European Union and African Union observer missions who adjudged the election as peaceful, free and fair whilst they identified areas of logistical improvements INEC should take into consideration in future elections.
“As you are well aware, the election was replete with drama. We saw the APC presidential candidate, party chairman and PCC director-general, losing their home states to Labour Party. Our DG also lost his bid to the Senate.
“We have also seen how Governor Samuel Ortom, a Labour Party backer lost his state of Benue to the APC. He also lost his bid to the Senate to the APC candidate. The Benue APC Tsunami was triggered by our popular governorship candidate, Father Hyacinth Alia and the party leader, George Akume. In Taraba, we have also witnessed how Governor Darius Ishaku lost his senatorial election.
“With all these hills and valleys and dramas that characterized the election, how can anyone claim the election was rigged or not transparent?
“We need to enjoin politicians to imbibe the democratic spirit. Elections are meant to test a candidate’s acceptance or popularity. In a National election, you must seek acceptance nationally. Ethnic champions can’t go far as democracy is a game of numbers. Wherever a candidate has the critical numbers, he wins. Wherever he is deficient, he loses. We have seen all these scenarios at play in the weekend election.
“We call on INEC to speed up the announcement of the result to quickly defuse the current atmosphere of anxiety in the country so that Nigerians can move on from this election circle with greater hope of prosperity which our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised them during the electioneering campaign. We are happy to note that the stock market recorded a gain of over 260 Billion Naira on Monday following news that Asiwaju Tinubu will emerge as the President-elect.
“In the meantime, we call on Nigerians and our supporters across the country to be peaceful, exercise more patience and not be provoked by the antics of the agents of darkness lurking around.
“Finally, we call on Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan by conceding defeat. This election has already been won by our candidate, according to the results declared at the collation centres in the state. In 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for INEC to finish collation before he called President Muhammadu Buhari and congratulated him on the true spirit of democracy and sportsmanship.
“We urge Atiku Abubakar and Obi to follow the same path of honour, instead of attempting to heat the polity via the reckless statements by surrogates. Let Atiku and Obi call Tinubu now”.
