Lai: Why outcome of presidential election surprised foreign observers

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says many foreign commentators were stunned by the outcome of the presidential election because of their pre-conceived opinions.

Speaking on Tuesday while engaging with some international media organisations and think tanks in London, the minister said the foreign observers had a wrong mindset about the election before it was conducted.

Lai said the international observers believed Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), would win the polls owing to the publicity created by his supporters on social media.

The minister said the hyped activities of the Labour Party supporters on social media did not represent the political situation in Nigeria.

“In the course of my interactions, particularly with the Economist, I referred them to an earlier article they wrote, in which they rated the Labour Party presidential candidate as the front-runner in the polls,” NAN quoted the minister as saying.

“I explained to them that there was no way a presidential candidate who has no political spread and a grassroots base could win an election in Nigeria.

“I also explained to them that many of them were ignorant of the constitutional requirements for a presidential candidate to win an election in Nigeria.

“For instance, not only that the candidate must have the plurality of votes, he must also have one-quarter of the total vote cast in at least 25 states of the federation.”

Lai further said both the LP and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates couldn’t have won the election because they didn’t meet the requirement.

“When you look at the results, only the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress and the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, met these requirements,” Lai added.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, came short of these because he came second and had 25 per cent in 21 states. Obi came far behind with 25 per cent in 15 states.

“This means that Obi, who was wrongly adjudged as a front runner in the election, was virtually unknown and unpopular in 22 states. For any party to ignore the north-east and the north-west zones of Nigeria during a presidential election, it will be impossible for it to win.

“The election had thrown up a lot of surprises and it is precisely those surprises that made it credible and transparent.”