EU’s castigation of presidential poll is neo- colonialism, says group

A socio-political organisation, Social Rehabilitation Gruppe has condemned the poor rating of the February 25 2023 presidential election by the European Union’s Observer Mission, describing it as an attempt at imperialism and neocolonialism.

In a statement on Saturday by the National Coordinator/Convener of the group, Dr Marindoti Oludare, the SRG stated that there was overwhelming evidence that the poll was the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s political history.

“The presidential election that produced President Bola Tinubu was the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s political history, with the most diverse outcome.

“An election where four out of 18 presidential candidates won at least one state, the top three candidates won an equal number of states plus FCT.”

The statement further described the past Februrary 25 election as, “An election where the winner of the presidential election won by a mere 36.61% of the vote, and where seven sitting governors failed to win the senate bid.”

It stated that from the outcome of the election results, “five political parties won governorship elections, seven parties won senatorial seats, eight parties are represented in the House of Representative and nine political parties are assembled in state houses of assembly across the nation.”

“Such elections can not be justifiably said to be massively rigged or marred by violence,” the group argued.

Oludare, who is a Nigeria-born and US-based medical doctor, averred that “despite this great stride towards a more equitable and just democracy, it is of great concern that the European Union Election Observer Mission decided to call a press conference in an attempt to discredit the sacred Nigerian electioneering process.”

It, however, condemned what he described as the EU’s grandstanding attempt at ‘whitesplaining’ to us how we should conduct our elections, tagging such as quite condescending and repugnant.