Amid the ongoing local and international backlash that has trailed the outcome of the just-concluded presidential polls conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), veteran journalist, and public affairs analyst, Chuks Akunna has faulted Muhammadu Buhari in his defense of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu's victory on the ballots.
Recall that in a statement issued through his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu on Thursday, March 9, 2023, Buhari insisted that the electoral process that produced Tinubu as the country's next Commander-in-Chief will stand despite calls from aggrieved opposition parties and candidates to annul the presidential elections.
Referring to them as 'wishful thinkers', the President stated that certain persons, through the various accusations hurled at INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, were desperately trying to recreate the June 12 scenario.
He said; "The wishful thinkers appeared to assume that the June 12, 1993 election crisis, the worst ever since the Civil War could be recreated. Those who sought to do this forgot what the President said at the palace of the Gbong-Gwon Jos when he went to the city to inaugurate the Tinubu-Shettima campaign: 'this election will not be annulled; whoever is the winner will be the president."
Reacting to Buhari's remarks during an interview on Africa Independent Television's 'Kaakaki' program on Friday morning, Akunna, who is the Executive Director of Authority Newspaper, argued that there was absolutely no correlation between the 1993 elections and the one conducted by Professor Mahmud Yakubu's INEC in 2023.
Akunna said; "President's statement on the election is 'sub judice' because the case is now in court. There was no need for him to have made that statement because he is not INEC. By saying the election stands, the President is making it seem as if he determined the outcome of the polls. And by him using the June 12 incident as an example is like comparing oranges and apples. They are two completely different things. So, echoing the June 12 scenario was very, very wrong. It's not good for the optics.
One, that election was conducted by the military and it remains the saddest chapter in our democratic history. The results were not announced. But in this case, the results were announced and a winner was declared by INEC. So, talking about the June 12 annulment was needless. There is no comparison whatsoever because Abiola was never declared president-elect. Had Professor Mahmud Yakubu halted the result collation mid-way and listened to the cries of the opposition, then maybe we would have been talking about June 12. But the moment he announced Tinubu as the winner, the next thing was not for the President to speak, it would be for everybody to go to court."
SOURCE: YouTube (Forward video to 19:18).
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