The Federal Government has warned Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi against inciting violence over the election outcome. Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed delivered the admonition in Washington, D.C., while speaking with several international media outlets about the recently concluded 2023 polls, according to the News Agency of Nigeria. So far, the minister has engaged the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine.
During these interactions, Mohammed said it was wrong for Obi, on the one hand, to seek redress in court over the election results and, on the other, to incite people to violence. “Obi and his vice‑presidential candidate, Datti Ahmed, cannot threaten Nigerians by claiming that if President‑elect Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. That is treason. You cannot invite insurrection, and that is what they are doing,” he said. He added that Obi’s statement reflects desperation and that “a democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.”
The minister also noted that challenging the election results offers no viable path to victory for either Obi or Peoples Democratic Party candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. According to Mohammed, neither Obi nor Atiku met the constitutional requirements to be declared president. “The constitution sets stringent criteria for anyone who wants to be president. Not only must a candidate obtain a plurality of votes, but he must also secure at least one‑quarter of the votes cast in a minimum of 25 states,” he explained.
Mohammed said only the president‑elect satisfied these criteria, having received 8.79 million votes and one‑quarter of the votes in 29 states. Atiku, who came second with 6.9 million votes, achieved the one‑quarter threshold in only 21 states, while Obi, third with 5.8 million votes, did so in just 15 states. “You cannot win an election when you finish a distant third and fail to meet the constitutional requirements,” the minister concluded.
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