2023 Elections: Buhari Delivered Free, Fair Polls, His Legacy Assured — Lai Mohammed

President Muhammadu Buhari has been commended for having a lasting legacy by the Minister of Culture and Information, Lai Mohammed, who added that the former delivered free and fair polls in 2023.

Mohammed, who stated the above in a statement on Sunday, advised the opposition to stop their complaining as they lost the election due to overconfidence and complacency.

According to the minister, none of the opposition parties met any of the conditions stipulated for emerging victorious in the presidential election.

"President Muhammadu Buhari lived up to his billing by delivering a free, fair and credible election, and his legacy is assured.

"The President would rather lose his state and many of his party’s strongholds than tamper with the fidelity of the election, and that is why he provided a level playing field for all parties”, he said.

"Going by the results, none of the opposition parties met any of the conditions stipulated for winning the presidential election. They didn’t even come close, in spite of their pre-election grandstanding.

"They (the opposition) keep leaning on some international observers to justify their fraudulent claim that the election was rigged. They conveniently forgot what Ambassador Johnnie Carson, the revered US diplomat who co-led the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI) International Election Observation Mission to Nigeria said: that the APC candidate undoubtedly won the polls.

"They also forgot that the African Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria said the atmosphere was generally calm and peaceful in 95% of the polling units visited.

"The opposition’s insinuation that the failure to immediately upload the result of the presidential election onto IReV affected the credibility of the election is a fraud. It is an act of blackmail and deceit by desperate individuals.

"The opposition Labour Party, in particular, will go down in the history books as the first-ever distant third-place finisher in a presidential election anywhere to have bold-facedly claimed victory", he added.