The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has criticized Atiku Abubakar, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, for his recent comments on the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken’s conversation with the Nigerian President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
During the call, Blinken assured the President-elect of the United States’ commitment to strengthening the US-Nigeria relationship with the incoming administration. However, Atiku expressed disbelief, claiming that the call was a contradiction to the publicly stated position of the US on Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.
Keyamo responded to Atiku’s comments, stating that the former vice president and Peter Obi, of the Labour Party, were behaving like the former US President, Donald Trump.
In a tweet, Keyamo highlighted that the US understands the election issues correctly. He emphasized that while there were intolerable incidents during the election perpetrated by all leading parties, credible reports indicate that those isolated incidents did not substantially affect the overall outcome of the elections.
Keyamo went on to state that Atiku and Peter Obi could not have won when, as opposition parties, they split their votes into three parts, with even a revolt of five of their governors within the depleted party.
He also noted that the US had applied the appropriate sanctions against anyone who perpetrated irregularities during the elections, which deepen Nigeria’s democracy.
Furthermore, Keyamo criticized Atiku and Peter Obi for relying on their usual bullying tactics to overwhelm the US and Secretary Blinken and cow them to toe their warped line of reasoning that has no evidential basis.
In conclusion, Keyamo asserted that the world has moved on, and Atiku and Peter Obi are still standing on one spot, depending on their usual tactics to deceive the world. However, he pointed out that the US and Secretary Blinken could not be overwhelmed by their activities on social media.
