Dele Alake claimed that the European Union’s “machinations to sustain its, largely, unfounded bias and claims on the election outcomes” were known to the government.
The results of the EU Electoral Observer Mission were deemed “jaundiced” by the Federal Government, which rejected the EU’s report on the general elections in 2023.
Dele Alake, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Special Duties, Communications, and Strategy, issued a statement on Sunday saying, “We urge the EU and other foreign interests to be objective in all their assessments of the internal affairs of our country and allow Nigeria to breathe.”
Alake argued that Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate at the time, had “clearly and fairly” won the presidency on February 25, 2023.
He added that the EU should let Nigeria breathe and refrain from interfering in its internal issues.
“We find it preposterous and unconscionable that any foreign organization, regardless of hue, can continue to insist on its own yardstick and assessment as the only way to gauge the legitimacy and transparency of our elections in this day and age,” he said.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), two of Tinubu’s opponents, are currently in court challenging the election umpire’s ruling that the former governor of Lagos State won the election.
On June 27, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) received a report from the EU regarding the elections in Nigeria that year.
According to the EU, the election revealed persisting structural flaws and hence indicated the need for additional legislative and administrative changes to improve openness, inclusivity, and accountability.
The EU also outlined six areas where Nigeria’s electoral process needs to be improved going forward.
The administration is aware of the “machinations of the European Union to sustain its, largely, unfounded bias and claims on the election outcomes,” according to Alake, who also claimed that the government.
Alake went on to say that neither the EU nor any other foreign or domestic organization has offered any credible proof that would be able to call into question the validity of the results of the 2023 elections.
“We would like to know and even ask the EU, how it reached the conclusions in the submitted final report with the very limited coverage of the elections by their observers who, without a doubt, relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries, and opposition talking heads,” he said.
“We have numerous reasons to think that the tainted study, based on the opinions of fewer than 50 observers, was only intended to uphold the same hasty condemnationist stance included in EU’s preliminary assessment released in March.
“We vehemently reject in its entirety any notion and idea from any organization, group, and person remotely suggesting that the 2023 election was rigged,” the statement reads.
According to Alake, Nigeria has put the elections behind it, and Tinubu now has to focus on reconstructing the country.
“As a nation, we have moved past the elections. The difficult effort of nation-building is being undertaken by President Tinubu, while those who have good cause to do so continue to do so in court.
