Party scored one-third of votes in only 15 of the 36
“When we told many of those we met that the Labour
states, they were shocked.”
Some international media organisations and
think-tanks have admitted that they were
misinformed about the Labour Party candidate
Peter Obi’s chances of winning the 2023
presidential election.
“Unfortunately, with all these facts on the ground,
they (foreign organisations) earlier believed that
Obi won the election.
This was because of the
wrong mindset they had before the polls based on
the hyped activities of his followers on social
media,” Mr Mohammed. “They also developed the
wrong mindset based on skewed and very
unrepresentative opinion polls, especially by
Bloomberg, which was uncritically reported by other
international media.”
Information minister Lai Mohammed disclosed this in
London when he concluded his engagements and
meetings with media houses and policy institutes.
The minister was in Washington and London to
defend the legitimacy of the just concluded general
elections and correct the imbalance in the skewed
narrative which had pervaded the air on the polls.
Addressing journalists at the Royal Institute of
International Affairs, Chatham House, London,
where he concluded his engagements, the minister
said his mission abroad was very successful.
“We have been able to correct the imbalance in the
reporting and we are leaving today with a better
feeling. Most of the people we met agreed with us
that they had been misinformed and they over-
relied on social media hype,” he said.
Mr Mohammed revealed that not until he educated
the foreign outlets, many were unaware of the
requirements to win a presidential election in
Nigeria.
“When we told many of those we met that the
Labour Party scored one-third of votes in only 15 of
the 36 states, they were shocked. We also told
them there is no pathway to victory for either the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or Labour Party
because they did not meet the requirements to be
declared winner,” stated the information minister.
Mr Mohammed said he also explained the edge APC
and its candidate, Bola Tinubu, had over the two
other major contenders, Mr Obi and Atiku Abubakar
of the PDP.
“We explained to them that it is not enough for you
to win 12 states, but what you scored in other
states is also very important.
For instance, in
addition to winning 12 states, the APC came second
in 19 other states with very high scores,” said Mr
Mohammed.
The information minister said he informed the
media outlets and think tanks that it was
impossible for any party without national spread
and grassroots base to win a presidential election,
stating that the Labour Party scored only 315,000
votes in the North-East and 350,000 votes in the
North-West.
He added, “However, I am leaving the USA and the
UK satisfied because the wrong perceptions had
been corrected and were changing.”
https://gazettengr.com/u-s-uk-media-think-tanks-wrongfully-believed-obi-won-presidential-election-fg/
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