Minister Of Information Heads To US To Attend Foreign Press

In what seems like an attempt to lobby international press and Western think tanks, Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, has headed to Washington DC, United States, over the outcome of the February 25 presidential election. BUSINESS HALLMARK reports.Information Guide Nigeria

Mohammed during his official engagements with some international media organizations warned Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, against inciting people to violence over the outcome of the Presidential elections.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister is in Washington to engage with international media organizations and Think-tanks on the just concluded 2023 polls.

NAN also reports that the minister had so far engaged respectively with the “Washington Post”, Voice of America, Associated Press, and Foreign Policy Magazine.

During the respective interactions with the media organizations, the minister said it was wrong for Obi on one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and on another breadth incite people to violence.

“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.

“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.

“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be.

“A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election,” he said.JAMB Result

The minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to the minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.

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“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country.

“Not only must he has the plurality of vote cast in an election, but he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states.

“Only the President-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the vote cast in 29 states of the federation,” he said

The minister said Atiku who came second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states.

He said Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one-quarter of the votes cast in 15 states.

“You cannot win an election in a poll where you came to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.

“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud has not disowned his victory in Lagos,” he said.JAMB Portal

Elaborating on his mission to the U.S., the minister said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition on the election.

He said the opposition, having lost in the election was alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of the interim government.NYSC Portal

“We have come here to balance that skewed narratives and to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria are the fairest, most transparent, and authentic in the history of Nigeria.

“The election is the fairest and most credible because of the introduction of the Bimodal Voters Verification System (BVAS) which I regard as a game changer.”