Some Nigerians have disagreed with the assessment of the United Kingdom’s government that Saturday’s presidential election results were “authentic and verified”.
The Nigerians reacted after a statement quoted UK’s minister of state for Africa, Harriett Baldwin as saying that results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are authentic and consistent with the civil society parallel vote tabulation process.
“I offer my congratulations to President Buhari on securing a second term as the Nigerian President. The UK is a long-standing friend and partner of Nigeria and the Nigerian people, and a stable and prosperous Nigeria benefits Africa and the world. The Nigerian people have demonstrated resilience and a commitment to democracy.
“The result declared by the Nigerian election commission is consistent with the result obtained through the civil society Parallel Vote Tabulation process. Along with our international partners, the UK believes the Nigerian people can have confidence in the result,” Ms. Baldwin was quoted as saying.
However, many Nigerians took to social media to accuse the UK government of colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to hide massive electoral fraud and violence that allegedly occurred in Saturday’s polls.
Recall that the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have since rejected the election results, threatening to go to court to challenge Buhari’s victory.
The commentators also shared the opposition party’s argument that the results declared were inconsistent with the way Nigerians voted during the election.
A commentator who identified herself simply as Cheryl said that the UK government could not give a honest assessment of the polls because it based its assessment on reports produced by observers that had been bought by the APC.
“Even the UK has been bought! APC game too tight abeg…. I pity PDP and whatever case they may have. God still de on the throne sha,” she said.
An anonymous poster also queried the UK’s motive for declaring the election results authentic, saying, “Ok. UK henceforth till eternity, this is how we Nigerians will conduct elections and vote. Since u guys said it’s ok, it’s ok. Very nice elections..same UK that gave power to the North…long hiss….”
Balaxy, another poster, said, “May the type of elections conducted in Nigeria last Saturday be conducted in UK’s next election. Sick UK, they want their health tourist Buhari to remain in power so he can continue wasting tax payers money on health tourism in the UK. Selfish people.”
An anonymous poster accused the UK of validating in Nigeria what it could never practice at home, saying, “UK, is this how you guys do ur elections? Hell no!!! In the UK, during elections, u won’t know it’s elections. Nothing like sit at home or holidays. People go to work and vote at their convenience. Now they are meddling in our elections. In my polling unit, we were told to vote for only APC. Is that election?”
Yet another anonymous poster urged the UK to cocentrate on “Brexit”, its plan to pull out of the European Union, instead of bothering about validating Nigerian elections.
The user said, “UK, face ur Brexit, when u are done with Brexit, no one will trade with u guys. Perhaps only u and Buhari will be trade partners ..we dash una”
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