A former member of the House of Representatives and international lawyer, Mr. Kayode Oladele, has condemned the report of the European Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Nigeria on its 2023 general elections.
Oladele described the report as “partisan, biased and ill-timed.”
Oladele, in a statement sent to SaharaReporters on Friday, said, “The Report which singled out the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the main perpetrator of election irregularities, without providing any credible evidence to support this claim, was written with a premeditated outcome in mind, and that the EU was not interested in providing a fair and objective assessment of the elections.”
The former lawmaker added that the report’s timing was also suspicious and suggestive of a likely move by EU to try to influence the final outcome of the Presidential Tribunal’s decision.
He said, “As a lawyer, I hasten to add that while election monitoring constitutes an essential component of the Nigerian electoral system and has also played a pivotal role in ensuring the integrity and development of the electoral process in the country, however, the principle of popular sovereignty of the country alternatively referred to as the principle of self-government or self-determination, asserts that all Nigerians are entitled to choose their leaders through universal suffrage and that the state is strongly protected against external interference or influence from other nation states or blocs.
“The EU Report sadly makes a sham of universal suffrage to say the least and must be condemned in its totality as a violation of the rights of all Nigerians to freely elect their leaders and determine their future.”
Oladele further adds that aside from legal authorities that consistently uphold the right of citizens to universal suffrage, other instruments such as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights intentionally protect the inalienable rights of Nigerians universal suffrage.
According to him, the EU Mission report on the 2023 Nigerian elections has therefore negated the spirit of these international conventions and has also violated other principles of law including the principle against disruption of a judicial process as enshrined in Section 6(6)(b) of the 1999 Constitution which provides that “In the exercise of its judicial powers, the Court shall not, in any matter before it, be influenced or affected by any extraneous considerations”.
According to Oladele, in layman’s terms, this “means that the courts must be free to decide cases without being influenced by outside factors such as political pressure or public opinion”.
Oladele also stated that this principle is important because it enjoins the courts to uphold the rule of law and deliver impartial justice as well as uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary and avoid any conduct which may give rise to the impression that they are biased or partial in the administration of justice.
“These principles have clearly been violated as seen from the actions of the EU and the tendering of the same Report by Mr. Peter Obi as evidence in support of his case, is one that calls for serious concern as it has the unsalutary effects of undermining our democracy and tinkering with the rule of law,” he said. He further added that the report appears to give some credence to allegations in certain quarters that the EU and some foreign donors secretly funded Peter Obi’s campaign through some civil society organisations.
In conclusion, Oladele asked how the EU could have come up with any credible and dependable report considering its “lean staff of about 100 observers stationed mainly in Lagos and Abuja to monitor well over 170,000 polling units across the country without relying on open sources which are highly unreliable, defective, tainted and corruption”.
The EU Mission concluded in its final report that the 2023 elections “fell short of international standards” and that there were “serious irregularities” in the voting process.
The report also singled out the APC as the main perpetrator of these irregularities.