Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has acknowledged that he has no evidence to substantiate his claim that he won the 2023 presidential election, while insisting that he remains convinced that he was the actual winner.

Obi made the remarks in a recent interview with BBC Africa while discussing his position on the disputed 2023 election and his plans to contest the 2027 presidential election.

Asked directly whether he had evidence to support his claim of victory in the 2023 election, Obi said, “There’s no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence.”

He nevertheless maintained that he won the election, adding, “I won the election and that’s where I will end. I don’t like going back to the past. I won the election (2023). Well, there’s no evidence but I won the election.”

Obi contested the February 25, 2023 presidential election under the Labour Party and was placed third in the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The electoral commission declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner with 8,794,726 votes, while Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar came second with 6,984,520 votes. Obi recorded 6,101,533 votes.

Following the declaration, Obi and the Labour Party challenged the outcome at the Presidential Election Petitions Court, alleging electoral irregularities and non-compliance with electoral laws.

The five-member tribunal dismissed the petition on September 6, 2023, and upheld Tinubu’s victory.

Obi later took the case to the Supreme Court, but a seven-member panel of the apex court dismissed his appeal on October 26, 2023, ruling that it lacked merit and affirming the lower court’s decision.

Despite the court decisions, Obi has continued to reject the 2023 election outcome as a true reflection of the votes cast by Nigerians.

Source: tribuneonlineng.com

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The Presidency has said the growing number of governors backing President Bola Tinubu gives him a stronger political structure and an advantage over opposition candidates ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today, arguing that the political landscape had changed considerably since the 2023 election.

Bwala said the support of governors was significant because they control political structures in their respective states and could translate their backing for Tinubu into grassroots mobilisation ahead of the election.

“Since then, President Bola Tinubu has got how many governors on his side? The governors are the Chief Executive Officers of their respective states. They coordinate the structures of the state. These people say, ‘We are putting our goodwill, our resources, our structure, and our support to the President,’” he said.

He said the President’s political position had also been strengthened by people who had benefited from his administration’s policies, including beneficiaries of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), agricultural programmes, manufacturing incentives, CrediCorp and infrastructure projects.

Bwala said the developments constituted “facts, verifiable data” which, in his view, showed that Tinubu had made progress since assuming office in 2023.

He also dismissed suggestions that the administration’s confidence ahead of 2027 was based solely on divisions within the opposition, saying its record in office would form an important part of its campaign.

His comments came amid renewed debate over Tinubu’s popularity and the ability of the opposition to challenge his bid for a second term.

Bwala dismissed an assessment by The Economist that Nigerians may re-elect Tinubu despite disapproval of his administration, arguing that claims about the President’s popularity should be backed by representative opinion surveys.

“When you make a claim that Nigerians don’t like him, without saying, also, that there are a lot of people… one million families that the children have benefited from NELFUND, you think they hate him?” he asked.

He similarly cited beneficiaries of agricultural interventions, support for manufacturers and CrediCorp, arguing that such groups should be considered when assessing public sentiment towards the administration.

On concerns over rising poverty and hunger, Bwala acknowledged that more Nigerians had fallen into poverty but attributed the hardship partly to the economic reforms undertaken by the Tinubu administration.

“More people went down to poverty, I acknowledge, I’m not doubting it. But there’s a but to it. Since when the reform started to today, we have made marked progress,” he said.

According to him, the reforms were necessary to address longstanding economic problems, despite the short-term discomfort experienced by Nigerians.

Bwala also defended Tinubu’s statement that Nigeria had moved from the “doldrums” towards prosperity, saying the President was not suggesting that Nigerians would suddenly begin experiencing prosperity from October 1.

He cited NELFUND beneficiaries, subsidised healthcare, infrastructure projects and support for small and medium-sized businesses as examples of what he described as prosperity already reaching Nigerians.

“One million families whose children have benefited from the NELFUND programme, what they are benefiting is called prosperity,” he said.

“If you go to an environment or a place where there have been no roads or any form of infrastructure, and we have established infrastructure there, what has come to them is prosperity.”

Bwala further claimed that the opposition had lost several influential political figures who played key roles in their 2023 campaigns.

He said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar no longer had the support of governors who worked for his 2023 campaign, while Peter Obi had also lost some critical political allies.

“In terms of the other candidates who say he will not win, Atiku Abubakar lost close to 25 per cent of key people that you know around him. All the governors that worked for him that time are no longer with him,” Bwala said.

“Peter Obi lost 55 per cent of the critical people that carried his campaign; they’ve all disappeared. And some of them went to Atiku, some of them went wherever they could go to.”

He consequently expressed confidence in Tinubu’s prospects in the 2027 contest, saying the political support around the President was considerably different from what existed before the 2023 election.

Source: tribuneonlineng.com

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