Why Atiku, Obi lost presidential election

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has explained why the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, lost last Saturday’s presidential election won by its candidate, Bola Tinubu.

Atiku and Obi refused to concede defeat in the February 25 presidential election, vowing to recover their mandate in court.

The two candidates rebuffed the gesture of conciliation made by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, who in his acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the poll on Wednesday, asked them to support him in the task of building the nation.

Atiku and Obi spoke at separate news conferences in Abuja on Thursday.

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But addressing a press conference on Friday in Abuja, the APC PCC Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Dele Alake, said both Atiku and Obi who came second and third respectively during the election knew their fate before Nigerians filed out to vote on Saturday.

He said the insistence by both candidates to seek redress in court was a “baseless journey of chasing after a mirage”.

While welcoming their moves to explore the judiciary, Alake said it was surprising that both Atiku and Obi also discredited the presidential election.

While absolving the Independent National Electoral Commission of blame, Alake said both Obi and Atiku’s loss had already been foretold.

He said, “Contrary to the false claims of Atiku and Obi, the reasons for losing the elections were foretold. Besides the delusional expectations created during the campaigns to hoodwink the public, most PDP leaders knew their party had been decimated by Peter Obi. The South East and South South that were traditional strongholds of PDP constituted the core support base for the Labour Party. PDP went into this election without its limbs and lied to itself that it could win the race. It is worthy of note that Atiku also accepted this fact during his press conference yesterday, when he lamented that his party’s votes in the South East and South South regions were carted away by the LP.

“The PDP also found itself in No.3 in Kano, with a former member, Kwankwaso running away with over 900,000 votes.

“How far could the PDP have gone with what was left of it? Not so far as the results of the elections have shown. The members of G5 were key leaders of the party who had substantial political influence. They also went away with their own pound of flesh, leaving a crippled PDP to scavenge for crumps of votes.

“For Obi, he would go down as Nigeria’s most dangerous and divisive politician. He elevated his well-known clannish mentality to a most unfortunate height by openly anchoring his campaign on religion and ethnicity. He presented himself as a poster boy for and a champion of our country’s fault lines. He took advantage of our youths whose expectations are fast paced, who are uninterested in excuses, and who were in search of a hero. He pumped up their sentiments and rode on their emotions while grandstanding as a saviour. It was a false pretence. Obi’s credentials are eternally stained as a former governor with no remarkable legacy.

“Not a few of our youths thought Peter Obi looked like the leader they wanted and many of them could not tolerate any form of scrutiny of their newfound hero. They chose wilfully to canonise him while insisting no one should ask questions. The combination of the disgruntled youths, the ethnic champions, and commercial clerics were the reason Obi thought he could win a presidential election in Nigeria. Such illogic is not strange to the Labour Party.

“If Labour Party could not fill up its quota for polling booth agents with a shortfall of over 40, 000, how did it intend to compete with political parties like APC and PDP? It would be interesting to see what evidence of rigging Labour Party will present before the court when the party could not appoint agents to monitor nearly a quarter of the venues of the election.

“As we look forward to an encounter with both the PDP and LP at the court, we want to enjoin the two of them to pursue their grievances with decorum. They should encourage their members, supporters, and ethnic and religious consultants to follow the path of the rule of law.

“We note that both Atiku and Obi are claiming victory, wouldn’t it make sense for them to agree who the actual winner is before challenging APC in court?

“Meanwhile, the APC train has left the station as we continue our effort to make Nigeria better for all Nigerians.”