Following the outcome of the recent February 25 elections, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has disowned the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC). In this interview on Channels TV Sunrise Daily monitored by Linus Aleke, the LP candidate expressed confidence in the judiciary, saying Nigeria’s judiciary is amongst the best in the world
How are you handling the outcome of the election which went against what you anticipated?
When you compete, especially in a transactional country like Nigeria, you expect all sought of things, and whatever the outcome, the most important thing is to stay on course. For me, I am on course on this because we have seen, probably what I consider the worst election in our recent history. Because of the Electoral Act 2022, which gave so much hope, as well as the huge expenditure we put into technology. Do you know what it means to spend over $1bn? So, there was so much, that was promised, but now we are back to where we used to be. For me, it was very devastating, a country as big as Nigeria, the giant of Africa, supposedly, a nation that should be celebrated globally. 63 years after Independence, Nigeria cannot conduct a simple election, just an election, I feel ashamed but for me, the struggle is on, and we will reverse the situation.
Did the outcome of the poll affect your mental state in any way?
I am not hurt or saddened personally, but I feel for my country and the future of the coming generation that is at stake here. We cannot go on this way, we must bequeath them a better place, and it is about the future. We must build a better place for future generations. Our inability to build a better place for them is what saddens me. I can assure you that if I am the President, Nigeria will spend less than what they had spent on this election and I will deliver a first-class election that will be celebrated globally. Look at the editorial content on our elections globally, from the Financial Times of London to institutions like Chatham House which is not known for making public comments. This election brought us so low amongst the comity of nations.
This is not the first time you are contesting elections, you ran for governorship and won and you also, ran as a running mate to Atiku Abubakar in the previous elections, do you still insist that this is the worst election in our recent history?
This is the worst because of the Electoral Act 2022, which gave so much hope when it was enacted. The law took care of so many things that impeded the credibility of previous elections. Then again we invested in technology, which was supposed to make the process seamless. INEC assured Nigerians that election results would be transmitted from the polling units to the IReV. Go back and read my speech at Chatham House, that of the candidate of the APC, and even the INEC Chairman himself. We all spoke glowingly about the new Electoral Act 2022 and the introduction of new technology. It was unfortunate that INEC promised so much and could not deliver even the minimum.
The National Chairman of your party had seemingly passed a vote of no confidence on INEC and the commission has painstakingly through press briefings and television appearances reassured you that it will make documents available to your legal team, have you been granted access to inspect information on the BVAS machine for the presidential election?
It is not only the National Chairman of our party that passed a vote of no confidence on the commission, I am sure that even yourself has passed a vote of no confidence on the commission but you would not say it here. If you are in doubt about the feelings of Nigerians about this election, go and read the Sunday editorial of Punch newspaper. When you finish this programme, go out to the street and ask people how they feel about the just concluded elections. So, Nigerians have passed a vote of no confidence on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and not the national chairman of our party. On the issue of the inspection of the materials, we have approached the commission on that and I believe that they are cooperating. Even when they said that they are configuring the BVAS for the governorship and House of Assembly elections, they promised to transfer the materials for the presidential election to the backend server.
Your team of lawyers met with INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, a couple of days ago and he said that he has nothing to hide, has that changed anything?
INEC is now dealing with the lawyers and I am dealing with the same lawyers. I don’t go to INEC any longer, I am not part of it.
Has your trust been restored in INEC?
I believe that the lawyers so far are satisfied, but as I said the case is at the court. So, it is no longer me trusting or not trusting INEC. There is now, something between the two of us. So, if that is between the two of us, and the lawyers are trusting them I will trust them.
You have a history with the tribunal and people are already watching to see if you could repeat the same history, do you still have confidence in the judiciary as you had then?
I stayed in court for three years, where people said I couldn’t become governor through the court but of course, I became the first. Remember, I was also impeached, and the court brought me back. I equally went for interpretation, when I said that my tenure had not elapsed. I don’t have any cause to doubt the court. I believe that Nigeria has one of the best judiciaries in the world.
It is we, the politicians that are trying to give our judiciary a bad name because of our transactional nature. The politicians try to ensure that everywhere is corrupted and that I wish to say can start reversing even with this case. Everywhere in the world, people are concerned about what happened in Nigeria. Nigeria’s elections, they are surprised, Nigeria, the giant of Africa can no longer deliver just elections. What about something great? Ghana will soon have elections, without BVAS, without anything, but it will be seamless, and peaceful. So, what is wrong with us as a people?
Is it fair to compare Nigeria’s elections with that of Ghana considering the population of the two countries?
India is the biggest democratic country in the world. As of last count, India has over 900 million registered voters, which is about ten times, the size of Nigeria and Indians’ participation in the electoral process is about 76 percent, this is above 600 million or about 511 million if you divide that by 24 million, it is 25 times, yet the issue of problems associated with elections is just five percent. So, it is a Nigerian problem. Indonesia, and Brazil are bigger in population than Nigeria and their electoral challenges do not also surpass five percent. What we are saying here is that we have a technology that we paid for and advertised so much.
What particular things do you have in mind about these elections that made you describe them as the worst elections?
The issue of the so call BVAS. The commission promised to conduct elections through a particular process and that process failed.
