Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said on Monday that the All Progressives Congress (APC) – led Federal Government deserved commendation and not criticism on the outcome of Saturday’s governorship election in Osun state.
He also faulted criticisms trailing the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the election inconclusive, adding that the APC submitted to the decision of INEC not because it hadn’t complaints to make but because of its belief in the rule of law.
He spoke at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos on the sidelines of the commissioning of a multimillion dollars in-flight catering facility which was a joint venture between LSG Sky Chefs and Things Remembered Nigeria Limited.
He said it was unfortunate that many people have short memory as similar circumstance was witnessed in 2015 during the governorship election in Kogi state where APC was in clear lead.
Mohammad also said the election was not a vote of no confidence on the APC government as being insinuated, saying every politics has its local peculiarities.
He said, “You see people have very short memory. I must tell you they exhibit a lot of ignorance. How many people remember today that in 2015, the governorship election in Kogi was suspended even when the APC was leading with 90,000 votes.
“And there were reruns ordered in about 90 polling units or so. So what happened in Osun has nothing to do with whether APC was winning or not winning or it is in government. It is the prerogative of the Independent National Electoral Commission to decide whether an election is concluded or not.
“If this had happened four years ago, they would have declared victory for the PDP but you can see that this is a government that believes in rule of law and fair play and that is why we submitted to the decisions of INEC, not that we didn’t have things to contest. We have a lot of things to contest also but we submitted to the decision of INEC because we believe in rule of law.
On whether the election was a vote of no confidence on APC government, he said, “At times we are a bit shallow in our assessment. If there is an election and APC has just a margin of 353 votes and you said APC had lost heavily, you should learn to look at context. Two, this is an election that was very peaceful, highly competed for, even though the APC had control of all the state institutions, we refused to abuse them.
“I think you should, on the contrary, congratulate and commend the Federal Government for being very impartial in the conduct of an election. And for those who are saying, ‘this is probably a sign that PDP would win’, every election is a local matter.
“The factors that would come to play in any election are local and peculiar to that particular state. It would not be fair and accurate or intelligent to generalize and say, ‘because it happened here, that’s what will happen’. What about Ekiti where we were not even in government at the state level and yet we won”.
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