2023 Presidency: Foreign Media, Think Tanks Say They Were Misinformed — Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Culture and Information, Lai Mohammed, has stated that some international media organisations and Think Tanks have admitted that they were misinformed about the chances of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi in the 2023 election.

The minister made the disclosure in London while concluding his engagements and meetings with media houses and policy Institutes.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mohammed was in Washington and London to defend the legitimacy of the 2023 polls and change the narrative which has trailed the elections.

Speaking with newsmen at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, where he concluded his engagements, he said that his mission abroad was a success.

“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 shared.

Mohammed revealed that many were not informed of the requirements to win a presidential election in Nigeria until he educated them.

“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 the winner.

“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.

“Unfortunately, with all these facts on ground, they 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.

“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.

”However, I am leaving the U.S.A. and the UK satisfied because the wrong perceptions had been corrected and were changing,” Mohammed stated.