The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Committee has provided an explanation for why its candidate, Bola Tinubu, won last Saturday’s presidential election over the nominees of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.
According to reports, Atiku and Obi vowed to fight to reclaim their mandate in court and would not accept defeat in the presidential election on February 25.
In his acceptance speech after being named the winner of the election on Wednesday, Bola Tinubu requested the two candidates to join him in the effort to improve the country, but the gesture of reconciliation was rejected by the two contenders.
On Thursday in Abuja, Atiku and Obi each gave a speech at a separate news conference.
Atiku and Obi, who finished second and third in the race, respectively, knew their fate before Nigerians went to the polls on Saturday, according to Dele Alake, Special Adviser on Media and Communication for the APC PCC.
He described it as a “baseless journey of chasing after a mirage” that both candidates insisted on going to court to seek justice.
Alake praised their efforts to investigate the courts but found it shocking that Atiku and Obi also questioned the validity of the presidential election.
Alake claimed that Obi and Atiku’s defeats had already been predicted while exonerating the Independent National Electoral Commission from responsibility.
He said, “Contrary to the false claims of Atiku and Obi, the reasons for losing the elections were foretold. Besides the delusional expectations created during the campaigns to hoodwink the public, most PDP leaders knew their party had been decimated by Peter Obi. The South East and South South that were traditional strongholds of PDP constituted the core support base for the Labour Party. PDP went into this election without its limbs and lied to itself that it could win the race. It is worthy of note that Atiku also accepted this fact during his press conference yesterday, when he lamented that his party’s votes in the South East and South South regions were carted away by the LP.
“The PDP also found itself in No.3 in Kano, with a former member, Kwankwaso running away with over 900,000 votes.
“How far could the PDP have gone with what was left of it? Not so far as the results of the elections have shown. The members of G5 were key leaders of the party who had substantial political influence. They also went away with their own pound of flesh, leaving a crippled PDP to scavenge for crumps of votes.
“For Obi, he would go down as Nigeria’s most dangerous and divisive politician. He elevated his well-known clannish mentality to a most unfortunate height by openly anchoring his campaign on religion and ethnicity. He presented himself as a poster boy for and a champion of our country’s fault lines. He took advantage of our youths whose expectations are fast paced, who are uninterested in excuses, and who were in search of a hero. He pumped up their sentiments and rode on their emotions while grandstanding as a saviour. It was a false pretence. Obi’s credentials are eternally stained as a former governor with no remarkable legacy.
“Not a few of our youths thought Peter Obi looked like the leader they wanted and many of them could not tolerate any form of scrutiny of their newfound hero. They chose wilfully to canonise him while insisting no one should ask questions. The combination of the disgruntled youths, the ethnic champions, and commercial clerics were the reason Obi thought he could win a presidential election in Nigeria. Such illogic is not strange to the Labour Party.
“If Labour Party could not fill up its quota for polling booth agents with a shortfall of over 40, 000, how did it intend to compete with political parties like APC and PDP? It would be interesting to see what evidence of rigging Labour Party will present before the court when the party could not appoint agents to monitor nearly a quarter of the venues of the election.
“As we look forward to an encounter with both the PDP and LP at the court, we want to enjoin the two of them to pursue their grievances with decorum. They should encourage their members, supporters, and ethnic and religious consultants to follow the path of the rule of law.
“We note that both Atiku and Obi are claiming victory, wouldn’t it make sense for them to agree who the actual winner is before challenging APC in court?
“Meanwhile, the APC train has left the station as we continue our effort to make Nigeria better for all Nigerians.”
