Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, on Wednesday, lashed out at the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his counterpart of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, for condemning the call made by the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken to the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Party, APC.
Reacting to the tweet made by Atiku which questioned the rationale behind Blinken’s call to Tinubu, Keyamo said that there was no mystery in the matter. He said the United States and Blinken understood that Tinubu won a genuine election and Atiku and Obi were just using media propaganda to discredit the process just like Donald Trump did in the United States.
According to him, there was no way either Atiku or Obi could have won when rather than run together they chose to split their votes, in addition to which five of the PDP governors revolted against the party thus further depleting the ranks of the opposition.
Keyamo’s tweets read, “No, your Excellency, @atiku, it is not a contradiction. The United States and @SecBlinken know you and Peter Obi are behaving like Donald Trump in America: refusing to accept your obvious defeat and relying on propaganda to deceive the world. They have your type in the US, so they understand the issues correctly.
“They know that whilst there were intolerable incidents during the election perpetrated by all leading parties (for instance Peter Obi got far less votes in Anambra State than was declared – I dare them to publish what is on IREV), they also have credible reports that those isolated incidents did not SUBSTANTIALLY affect the overall outcome of the elections.
“They know both of you could NOT have won when, as opposition parties, you split your votes into 3 parts, with even a revolt of 5 of your Governors within your depleted party. Yes, THEY KNOW YOU LOST AND @officialABAT WON, FAIR AND SQUARE.
“And for those who perpetrated these irregularities during the elections, the US has applied the appropriate sanctions (and we welcome those sanctions which deepen our democracy), but that is that. IT IS NOT A CONDEMNATION OF THE ENTIRE ELECTION AS YOU HAVE WRONGLY ASSUMED.
“Hence, a couple of days ago, the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the U.S Embassy in Nigeria, Mr David Greene visited the Vice-President-Elect Senator Kashim Shettima and earlier today Secretary Blinken put a call through to @officialABAT to pledge the cooperation of the US and its support for the in-coming administration.
“The world has actually moved on, but you and Peter Obi are still standing on one spot. As usual, you and Peter Obi are depending on your usual bullying tactics to overwhelm the US and @SecBlinken and cow them to toe your warped line of reasoning that has NO EVIDENTIAL basis.
“Unfortunately for you, these are people and institutions that cannot be overwhelmed by your mob on social media. That system handled Trump and his tantrums. They can also handle you and Peter Obi.”
It would be recalled that Atiku in a tweet had condemned the call by Blinken to Tinubu which seemed to further confer legitimacy on the President-elect. He said: “I am in disbelief that @SecBlinken called Tinubu, a contradiction to the publicly stated position of the US on Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election. This is inconceivable considering that America, as the bastion of democracy, is well briefed on the sham election of February 25. To give legitimacy to the widely acknowledged fraudulent election in Nigeria can be demoralising to citizens who have hedged their bet on democracy and the sanctity of the ballot. @StateDept @POTUS @USinNigeria.”
