2023 election: Why Nigerians should ignore EU report – U.S associate professor

A United States-based associate professor of medicine, Yemi Oladimeji, has called on Nigerians to ignore the final report of the European Union (EU) election observation mission on the 2023 polls.

Oladimeji, in a statement on Monday in Osogbo, described the report as a threat to the country’s national unity and portends danger to peaceful co-existence among diverse ethnic groups and interests.

According to him, the report is not comprehensive enough to be valid, since the EU Elections Observer Mission failed to cover a substantial number of polling units across the country during the elections.

Oladimeji, who is also the Chief Medical Officer of the Community Hospital and Diagnostic Center, Abuja, said the time of release of the EU report should also be queried, adding that the report was meant to serve a “political purpose.”

He said that no group or individual outside Nigeria has the competence to “define us better than who or what we are or interpret our political and electoral processes better than ourselves.”

“There is no time better than now to assert our sovereignty as a nation. Nigeria should resist imperialism under any guise.

“The EU knowing its limitation in interfering directly with the internal affairs of Nigeria now resorts to a subtle appeal to make the world believe something was amist with the nation’s 2023 general elections through that report.

“The majority of Nigeria voted for Bola Tinubu, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and must be allowed to stay focused and chart a way out of the woods for a country already bedeviled,” he added.

Oladimeji noted that no election anywhere the world, including countries like the United States of America, England and Ireland, was perfect.

“Reports of skirmishes in few areas can not be used to determine the overall performance and integrity of our electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), swept all the votes in his South-East stronghold and even beat Tinubu in his homestead in Lagos.

“While Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also made a significant performance in some states in the South-West.

“But, I think we should all wait for the judiciary, an arm of government empowered by the Nigerian Constitution, through an election petition tribunal, to give a final verdict on the matter rather than the EU speaking for all of us”, he said.

Recall that the EU Observer Mission had on June 27 in its report faulting the 2023 polls owing to “enduring systemic weaknesses.”

The Federal Government, however, rejected the report, describing it as “a poorly done desk job”.