When political participation is not
done with some measure of fairness, it suffers any claim to patriotism. And
this is exactly what the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apparently suffers with
regard to the just concluded presidential election.
The opposition party has been
relentless in its foul bid to discredit the processes of election which
conferred victory on President Muhammadu Buhari, and in so doing, sweeping up
porous pontifications about the results of the Northern states where President
Buhari enjoyed exceeding votes.
The big hypocrisy on the part of PDP
is accepting that elections were flawless in states where it enjoyed swelling
votes – particularly in the South East and South South regions – and calling
corrupt the process that gave the ruling party an edge in some states within
the Northern enclave.
A heap of evidence supports the
validity of election results as collated and announced by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC). Besides, the collation of All
Progressives Congress (APC) own situation room that tallies with INEC figures
lends credence to the result, and independence sources also say Buhari’s
victory is genuine.
It is instructive to note that
various international communities including European Union (EU), United States
(US), United Kingdom (UK), Commonwealth, African Union (AU) and Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) objectively observed/participated
before, during and after the elections to ensure that the whole electoral
processes are free, fair, credible and peaceful. And their comments after the
presidential and National Assembly elections have attested to the glaring fact
that the elections were fair and credible.
Of particular consequence is a
release by the British Minister of State for Africa which lends authentication
to the INEC result.
The Minister of the United Kingdom
Government has confirmed that the results of the presidential election as
released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were
authentic.
British Minister, Harriet Baldwin,
said the results were consistent with the results obtained through the civil
society Parallel Vote Tabulation process, saying, “Along with our international
partners, the UK believes the Nigerian people can have confidence in the
result.”
The opposition has also called for
the probing into the election processes, which we believe is not out of
place. However, probing must be wholesale and thorough. Probing must also
involve the PDP with regard to the sources of its election finances and allied
transactions.
We have it on good authority that a
bulk of the finances of the PDP was drawn from the stolen monies from our
commonwealth– particularly of interest is the information that some of those
who ran out of Nigeria were loitering in the neighbouring countries during the
just concluded presidential election.
This corrupt means of election
funding must be captured in the imminent probing efforts of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and sister
agencies.
We shall not hesitate to forward our
petitions to these bodies to ensure a thorough and comprehensive investigation
into the cooked books of the PDP to expose the sources of funding of their
clandestinely shrouded flamboyant campaign.
While these processes are unfolding
in the interest of the country that is fast progressing under President Buhari,
all hands must be on deck to check excesses and democratic oversteps of the
actors in PDP, which include its persistent plans to rubbish the majority of
votes which Nigerians freely and fairly gave to President Buhari
Long live Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
Forward With Buhari!
Kayode Ajulo, PhD
Secretary, Forward With Buhari.
