Statement by the Network of Ministerial Aides (NETMA) on the call for the formation of an interim government in Nigeria and a plea to opposition candidates to stop delegitimizing APC presidential victory

Democracy is a system of govt by which political power is vested in the people, that is the electorate. One of the pillars of democracy is the acceptance that whereas the the minority will have it’s say, the majority will have it’s way. Although this concept of democracy is imperfect as it tends to entrench majoritarian rule, it remains the most widely accepted foundation for electoral democracy. In this way, democracy is a combination of the people and not just a majoritarian philosophy.

Building trust in the electoral system everywhere in the world is very difficult and takes time, while losing trust is brutally simple and often fatal. It is therefore important that as Nigeria takes steps through the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deepen our democracy by the organization of elections that are free, fair, transparent and acceptable, all hands must be on deck to support the process as electoral trust reinforces belief in democratic institutions and underpins the acceptance of the election results that enable democratic and stable transitions of power.

The unnecessary rhetorics and threats in the buildup to the 2023 presidential election and the associated incendiary remarks during the campaigns unwittingly set the stage to question the outcome of the election. There is always the potential for the short-term interest of Nigerian politicians to discredit elections in areas where they perform poorly and to accept only results in which they emerge victorious. For them, elections are free and fair and acceptable only when they win. All over the world, elections in a large country including the results from such elections, make scrutiny for potential mistakes in the voting or counting process particularly rigorous. The severe and complex logistics of elections make errors inevitable. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) adhoc staff in the entire territory of Nigeria working long hours with unfamiliar new technology or procedures and the widest diversity of citizens sometimes makes the process inherently problematic. Unpacking this complexity demands the ability to look at institutions, processes and officials from multiple angles and to support them to deliver on their mandate. Given, all the challenges, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) performed creditably in their conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections.

We however note with grave concern the current orchestrated actions of the presidential candidates of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively in attempting to subject our democratic institutions to ridicule and opprobrium. High-profile elections in which the process and results were brutally questioned, such as in Kenya, Venezuela, Myanmar have often fueled instability and distrust among the major ethnic groups. In a multiethnic, and multi religious country like ours, allowing the present situation to fester after the announcement of the winner of the presidential election is not only antithetical to democratic consolidation but also to the peaceful transfer of power from the present administration to the incoming one.

The actions of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are jeopardizing the integrity of the 2023 elections and we are particularly troubled that young, impressionable and innocent young people and some non-discerning adults are going along with Obi/Atiku post-election rhetorics and incendiary remarks. Their challenge of our institutions are delegitimizing our democracy through their unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Their action is one more step in delegitimising not just the incoming Asiwaju /Shettima administration, but Nigerian democracy generally and we consider this to be a dangerous path to thread.

Their consistent statements and remarks in their staged-managed protests and media interviews are laced with misleading statements and outright falsehoods and amount to an assault on the democratic process which has been running without interruptions since 1999. With a fragile polity such as ours, it is our fear that their current actions have the potential of pouring fuel into our democracy which may be ignited as soon a match is lit. They are also preparing to strike the match any moment from now.

There is no evidence of widespread compromised ballots or corrupt voting systems in the last presidential election and their current actions amounts to poisoning our democracy and this constitutes a serious risk to our national security. While we accept that there were some isolated and localized incidents that attempted to undermine the process, we insists that the presidential election was free, fair, credible and the outcome represents the wishes of the majority of Nigerians. We have the utmost confidence in the integrity of our elections and our judicial process for seeking redress and we urge all Nigerians to do the same. Atiku and Obi cannot continue posturing and attempting to establish that they both won the presidential election without any basis in fact and in reality.

We urge Alhaji Abubakar and Peter Obi and all patriotic Nigerians to work with the president-elect, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pull the country back together so that we can fight our common enemies of hunger, insecurity, and unemployment which still persists despite the best efforts of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR rather than denying reality and poisoning the well of our democracy. It is the height of absurdity for anyone to suggest the formation of an interim government in Nigeria which the duo of Atiku and Obi and their supporters are currently clamoring for. Such a call has no place in our constitution and even common sense. No lover of Nigeria should call for the formation of an interim administration simply because an opposition party failed to win the general election. Why are they not calling for the formation of interim administrations in the states of the federation where their parties won or failed to win governorship elections? Why is there a rabid fixation to demarket President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

After submitting their respective petitions to the Court of Appeal for adjudication, Atiku and Obi have no moral or legal basis to continue to stir the nation towards a state of anarchy. What they are doing amounts to hunting with the hunter and running with the antelope simultaneously. They cannot be in court challenging the outcome of the election and also be on the streets at the same time. What the calls to street protests signals is that Atiku and Obi will not be satisfied with the verdict of the courts that does not declare them winners as they are hell bent on pushing forwards with their attempts to instigate an insurrection. We therefore throw our weight behind the petition of Mr. Festus Keyamo SAN, the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment, to the Director of State Services (DSS) to rein in on these elements of destabilization, especially Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed. These individuals are trying to manipulate the youths to embark on an ENDSARS-type of protests in Nigeria through their destabilizing and manipulative actions in which the youths will be ultimate victims of their manipulations. Never once, incidentally, have any of these people offered a scintilla of evidence demonstrating that a single person’s vote was changed, altered, or appropriated by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or anyone else. Yet they go around with the slogan of a so-called stolen mandate by their unsupported, suspicions and harebrained claims which is totally baseless and self-seeking, and seem like drowning men grasping at straws.

The youths are already being encouraged by the incendiary public comments of those who lost the presidential election and are encouraged to take laws into their hands by the context of their utterances, finding appropriate meaning within the broader social media environment to design and deliver toxic social media messages to encourage acts capable of undermining national security, cohesion and integration.Their public utterances and comments have become weapons on the discursive battlefield on the social media which they hope to translate to the streets of Nigeria major cities. If the Tinubu/Shettima silent majority support groups were to similarly deploy their social media outfits, the entire scenario will evolve and drive an online polarization which in turn can manifest itself and lead to offline violence, the end point no one can predict.

Obi and Atiku’s plan to delegitimize the presidential election result is just another page from Donald Trump’s playbook after the last United States of America’s presidential election. Trump failed in America. Obi and Atiku will fail in Nigeria. Neither Obi nor Atiku or Kwakwanso could have won the presidential election haven cannibalized their PDP votes across the country.

The time to pull back is now.

Dr. Philip Ugbodaga

Special Assistant to the Hon Minister of State for Budget and National Planning

Chairman,

Network of Ministerial Aides (NETMA)