2023 elections: EU report threat to national unity — US-based medical expert

A United States-based associate professor of medicine, Dr Yemi Oladimeji, has disclosed that the European Union reports on Nigeria’s 2023 general elections posed a threat to national unity and should be disregarded.

He added that the said report portends danger to peaceful co-existence among diverse ethnic groups and established interests.

A statement issued by Oladimeji and made available to newsmen in Osogbo on Monday, he said the report was not comprehensive enough to be valid since the European Union (Election Observer Mission) failed to cover a substantial number of polling booths across Nigeria during the election.

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

It reads: “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 amis with the nation’s 2023 general elections through that report.

“They may come as our friends but we must learn not to fall for their antics. Nigeria must assert her sovereignty at all times, not minding their measures. How, on earth, could 40 observers on the EU platform present true and objective report on the election with a large population and size of Nigeria?

“How can a body with little knowledge of peculiarities and variables that form the basis of the electoral process now presents a report to undermine its integrity? If I should be historical about formation of Nigeria after the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914 by Lord Fredrick Lugard and an introduction of indirect rule in the country just for an administrative purpose, you will agree that with the consequences of that singular action nobody can define us from afar and impose measures on us.

“Nigeria is just trying to smart out of the complexity and complication of the amalgamation foisted on her people, when the EU is surreptitiously playing the role of “who pays the piper dictates the tune.” Because they have been supporting Nigeria and other African nations financially and otherwise is not enough reason to keep us under their feet. That is not acceptable to us.

“What we desire as a people is for Nigeria to forge ahead inspite of its myriads of challenges. The president the majority of Nigeria voted for, Bola Tinubu, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) must be allowed to stay focused and chart a way out of the woods for a country already bedeviled.

“No election anywhere in the world is perfect, even countries like the United States of America, England, Ireland and so on are not exempted. 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).

“A candidate among the contestants, 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 People’s Democratic Party (PDP) also made a significant performance in some states of 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.”