Tinubu labels EU report on his election ‘jaundiced’ in scathing attack

President Bola Tinubu has issued a scathing response after the European Union concluded that Nigeria’s 2023 general elections through which he emerged president were marred by flaws.

The EU election observers said in a final report on Thursday that federal and state elections in February and March were marred by irregularities that reduced public trust in voting and the electoral process.

The 2023 Nigerian elections received foreign funding support, including €39 million from the European Union and $25 million from the United States.

The EU election mission criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission in particular, saying “the 2023 general elections did not ensure a well-run transparent, and inclusive democratic process as assured by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”

“Public confidence and trust in INEC were severely damaged during the presidential poll and was not restored in state level elections, leading civil society to call for an independent audit of the entire process.”

– Poorly done desk job

In its response Sunday, President Tinubu said his office was long aware the EU mission had a plan to discredit the elections, and the main target was the presidential election.

“We find it preposterous and unconscionable that in this day and age, any foreign organisation of whatever hue can continue to insist on its own yardstick and assessment as the only way to determine the credibility and transparency of our elections,” the president said in a statement by Dele Alake, his special adviser on communication and strategy.

The statement attacked the EU team’s election monitoring process, saying it had too little number of observers to deliver a credible assessment of the poll.

“We would like to know and even ask EU, how it reached the conclusions in the submitted final report with the very limited coverage of the elections by their observers who, without doubt, relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads,” it said.

“We are convinced that what EU-EOM called final report on our recent elections is a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day.

“We have many reasons to believe the jaundiced report, based on the views of fewer than 50 observers, was to merely sustain the same premature denunciatory stance contained in EU’s preliminary report released in March. We strongly reject, in its entirety, any notion and idea from any organisation, group and individual remotely suggesting that the 2023 election was fraudulent.”

– Why this matters

The Feb. 25 presidential election witnessed irregularities across the country, with voters unable to cast their ballot in many areas. Most notably, Inec failed to upload the results from polling units in real time as it repeatedly promised.

President Bola Tinubu was declared winner after winning in 12 states, and has argued despite evidence to the contrary, that the elections were the fairest in the country since 1999.

The major opposition candidates from the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party are in court seeking an overturn of the results.