Obasanjo explains silence on 2019 presidential election

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday said that speaking about the just-concluded presidential election would amount to subjudice as the matter is already before the court.

Obasanjo, who spoke in Abuja at the public presentation of a book titled: “Election in Nigeria: The Long Road to Democracy,” written by Abdullahi Shehu, noted that any election short of integrity is a farce. He said that since the matter of the election is in court, he would restrain himself from dabbling in the details.

He said: “I think talking about it would become subjudice because it has been taken to court. I will not dabble in the details of what I call current aspect of Prof. Shehu’s book because since the emphasis was on the general elections, particularly the presidential election that has been taken to court.”

The former President, who described the book as a comparative analysis of APC’s ‘Next Level’ and the PDP’s ‘Let’s Get Nigeria Working Again,’ said: “In the introduction of the book in which election is described as the bedrock of a democratic government, modern democracies and old elections, not all elections are truly democratic. The measure of a democratic election is that it is transparent, fair, credible and acceptable.

“The problem is, who determines these outcomes in the election? And that is where the concerns are about a sustainable democracy and if an election is fundamental and basic to democracy and good governance, it has to be free and fair.”

The book dwelled and enunciated on the electoral processes in Nigeria, including the factors and circumstances that led to the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, and how the APC mismanaged the victory.

(Daily Post News Nigeria)