2023 Presidential Elections show how Nigeria’s kleptocracy continues to masquerade as American-style oligarchy aided by compromised election and judicial bodies

• Voting blatantly manipulated by officials of the INEC starts late in many districts, depriving millions of the right to vote

• The system to upload results from polling stations is derailed as party goons invade polling stations to kill and maim

• The Financial Times witnessed armed men remove a presidential ballot box in Surulere, Lagos

The Financial Times of London, along with international observers and even a complacent African Union election monitoring team have conceded that the 2023 Nigeria Elections organized by INEC to select a new president was just a monumental scam and disgrace to Africa.

Also Read: Nigeria: Brief History of an African Kleptocracy

Nigeria’s Presidential Election Badly Flawed – UK’s Financial Times

by Kayode Oyero ChannelsTV.com

London-based newspaper, Financial Times says Nigeria’s just-concluded presidential election is “badly flawed”.

The publication said the February 25 poll “failed to set the example needed for West Africa, a region where too many national leaders have extended term limits or resorted to seizing power at gunpoint”.

In an editorial titled, ‘Nigeria’s badly flawed election’, the United Kingdom-based publication said what Nigeria needs is a clean election to reiterate the basic message of democracy: that a sovereign people can choose its leaders.

It, however, regretted that a “clean election” did not happen.

“The election — which appears to have delivered the presidency to Bola Tinubu, a wealthy political fixer running for the incumbent All Progressives Congress — was badly mismanaged at best,” the editorial stated.

Financial Times said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “badly misfired” having failed to “transmit voting tallies electronically from polling stations would eliminate ballot stuffing”.

“Voting started late in many districts, depriving millions of the right to vote. The system to upload results from 177,000 polling stations stuttered, causing legitimate concerns of vote tampering during long delays. Violence was troubling. Party goons invaded many polling stations in what appeared to be blatant acts of intimidation. The Financial Times witnessed armed men remove a presidential ballot box in Surulere, Lagos.

“The official result put Tinubu on 37 per cent, Atiku Abubakar from the People’s Democratic party on 29 per cent and Peter Obi on 25 per cent. But some individual results do not pass the smell test. That includes Obi’s ever-so narrow victory in Lagos state, where crowds had greeted him like a rock star.”

The publication noted that Obi and Abubakar must now decide whether to pursue their claims of rigging in the courts. “If they do, Nigeria’s judiciary should take a long hard look.”

“If Nigeria’s courts find suspicions, they should not shrink from annulling individual contests or even the whole result,” says The Financial Times.

Nigeria’s Election Badly Flawed, INEC Failed, Says Financial Times in Editorial.

by Editor, MoneyCentral.com

As controversies continue to trail Nigeria’s just concluded 2023 presidential and National Assembly polls held last weekend, The Financial Times of London has said the elections were badly flawed, just as it lambasted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for misfiring.

The newspaper also advised the courts to take a hard look at the emergence of the president-elect, Mr. Bola Tinubu if his victory was challenged in court by his opponents.

The London-based publication gave the advice in its editorial published yesterday.
It added that Tinubu’s tally of 8.8 million in a country of 220 million people gave him the weakest of mandates.

It warned that the former Lagos State governor would be faced with one of the most difficult jobs in the world as Nigeria has been teetering on the edge of catastrophe with a breakdown of security and an almost total absence of growth.

The Financial Times argued that all that Nigeria needed was a clean election to reiterate the basic message of democracy where a sovereign people could choose its leaders, saying “sadly, it did not happen.”

It maintained that the, “election which appears to have delivered the presidency to Bola Tinubu, a wealthy political fixer running for the incumbent All Progressives Congress — was badly mismanaged at best.”

The publication added that the presidential election failed to set the example needed for West Africa, where too many national leaders have extended term limits or resorted to seizing power at gunpoint.

Noting that, “Nigeria remains a democracy, but only just,” Financial Times posited that the emergence of Obi as a viable third-party candidate had brought excitement and forced candidates to talk about policies, if only a little.

According to the paper, neutral observers had thought that INEC was in good shape and that they had high expectations that the electoral umpire’s promise to transmit voting tallies electronically from polling stations would eliminate ballot stuffing.

It added that, “the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, had staked what remains of his tattered reputation on a clean contest.

It recalled that the courts in Kenya in 2017 and Malawi in 2020 had overturned suspect elections, maintaining that if Nigeria’s courts find suspicions, they should not shrink from annulling individual contests or even the whole result.