…says Nigeria's Democracy not hollow
The Nigeria's pro-democracy group, National Coaliiton for Democracy Renewal Group, NADECO, has written to the President of the United States (U.SA), Mr. Joel Biden, to defend Nigeria's democracy which novelist Chimamanda Adichie had described as hollow in her earlier letter in which she condmened the declaration of Bola Tinubu as President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission.(INEC).
In NADECO's letter, which was made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, co-signed by ten national and international Exco members of NADECO and entitled: Nigeria's Democracy not Hollow, it's Evolving Promisingly, the pro-democracy group, defended the nation's democracy and described the February 25, 2023 presidential poll that produced Tinubu as the freest, fairest and most credible ever.
The group also expressed critical swipes at Adichie.
We bring the full text of NADECO's letter to President Biden below 👇:
Nigeria's Democracy not hollow, it's evolving promisingly
Dear President Biden,
We do.hope this letter meets you in good health and soundness of mind. We are members of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) renewal group, a pro-democracy movement that has a history of combating every undemocratic elements in an unrelenting bid to promote, preserve and strengthen our country's promising democracy.
NADECO renewal group has millions of its members who are full bloodied Nigerians across the globe and we represent the many democratic voices of over 200 million Nigerians who have freely, fairly and willingly given their mandate to the President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Dear President, over 18 million registered and accredited voters across the six-geo-political zones of our dear country had thumbed printed the ballots to affirm that Tinubu is the choice of the majority in that historic February 25th, 2023 presidential poll that happened in Nigeria.
The poll has been described by well-meaning and progressively minded democrats in the country and beyond, as the freest, fairest and most credible of the ones we have been having since 1999 when the military was ousted from Nigeria courtesy of activism of NADECO which the now President-elect, Senator Tinubu, has been a foremost member.
As it is practised generally, in every democracy, the minority usually have their say, while the majority have their way. And once the majority have made their choice, what is left is for the opposition to, in the genuine spirit of sportsmanship, congratulate the winning party and even offer to support in anyway to ensure good governance for the sake of the survival, progress and development of our dear country. This is supposed to be the situation after every election in a democracy. But alas! our situation in Nigeria seems to be an exception. There are undemocratic elements who, bittered by their loss in a free and fair poll, are now hell bent on truncating this democracy. Sadly, one of such elements is the acclaimed Nigerian young female novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , who recently penned a seditious, childish, grossly unpatriotic and illogical letter to your office which she entitled: " Nigeria's Hollow Democracy".
Dear President, there are every reason to suspect that Adichie's letter could have been sponsored by enemies of Nigeria's democracy who desire to leverage on her naivety to truncate this democracy. But they will not succeed.
Dear President Biden, as an elderly and most patriotic American who is equally fully aware about Nigeria's tortous journey to democracy as well as the patriotic and courageous activities of valiant democrats like our President-elect Tinubu, you would agree with us that Senator Tinubu has paid his due in daring to lose his life for the survival of our dear country and as such, deserves the victory great Nigerians gave him on February 25th, 2023. It couldn't have been any less a victory for him.
It is therefore sad for us have to have such an unthoughtful letter from a supposedly one of the finest in our country, written to demean a phenomenal politician and foremost statesman like President-elect Tinubu. Yes, Tinubu is simply phenomenal, not only in our country's political circles but also as a man who has given himself wholesomely to the service of the nation and contributed in no small measure to the growth, development and survival of the country, especially during the dark days of military rule. He therefore, does not deserve that rude, viperous and unreasonable letter borne out of glaring ethnocentric and misguided ego and full of lies deliberately told to cause choas and confusion.
Let us, for the sake of posterity, take on Adichie on some of her gafe in the ill-conceived letter.
First, Adichie described the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)'s alleged partial failure in uploading all the collated and signed results of the presidential poll on its server as a breach of contract, one of reneging on its assurance as earlier given. This is ridiculous! And it is so because there are quite a number of factors that were responsible for the partial uploading of all the collated and signed presidential poll's results, some of which included prevailing poor internet network that is in virtually all the rural and some urban areas of the country, there is also the attempts by hackers who massively attacked INEC servers possibly to alter the presidential poll's results among other issues unforeseen.
Even Adichie agreed in her letter that some of the results were uploaded, meaning that there could not have been any predetermined plan not to upload the results. Besides, what is fundermental in this respect, is that all participating political party agents, including those of Labour Party (although, Labour Party had no party agents in over 40,000 polling units in the country during the polls) which Adichie supports, witnessed the signing and collation of the documented results at the polling units and they signed these documents before they were ready for uploads. So, the documents remain most valid and legally acceptable. The whole noise about why they were uploaded or not amounts to unnecessary distraction from the cruz of the matter. Much moreso, that these same collated and signed documents culminated into all the results the states' collation officers eventually presented to the national collation officer, Prof. Mamood Yakubu who relied on them to announce Tinubu as the validly elected President of Nigeria on February 26th, 2023, having satisfied all the constitutional requirements to be so declared.
At this jointure, we like to point your attention to the best thing that happened to our polls during the last outing sir. It was the introduction of the BIVAS machine which ultimately obliterated over voting and rigging in the last elections. These wonder working machines were used to accredit voters via their fingers and facial identities in other to prevent unregistered Nigerians from voting or voting more than once. It was an idea of the electoral umpire and it did the magic that manifested in opposition party or third force Labour Party wining the presidential poll in Lagos and Abuja, two states that are political strongholds of the ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) party!.
Adichie failed to mention the foregoing glaring fairness and credibility of the polls because of her deliberate subjective reasoning. She also lied when she claimed that most opposition parties' representives had asked the electoral umpire to halt votes' counting and investigate alleged discrepancies. As a matter of fact, after the medlodramatic show of shame by a spokesman of one of the opposition parties, (an act that has been widely condemned in several quarters), most opposition parties, including the umbrella body of all the political parties, had urged the electoral umpire to continue the process, indicating their trust in it.
Adichie goofed again when she claimed that rigging, manipulations and violence marred the presidential poll. In her hurry to unthoughtfully discredit the poll, she forgot that all states' collation officers had reported that results of polling units where there were failure of the BIVAS machines and violence, were cancelled and not included in the ones they presented. This is clearly an error of judgement on her part which betrays her devilish intent in peening the letter.
Adichie again in her ethnocentric egoism, claimed that Nigerian youths are angry at the announcement of President-elect Tinubu and we wonder, which Nigerian youths was she referring to? Are they the very few misguided elements who are venting their unjustifiable anger and constituting nuisaance on the internet as " Obedients' or the mass of sensible Nigeria youths who overwhelmingly voted for President-elect Tinubu? For indeed, the whole world knows that those who tagged themselves Obedients have become toxics, disrupting sound reasoning and discourses on the unfolding political drama on the internet, while reasonable and democratically sound Nigerian youths in their millions, have endorsed the Tinubu presidency.
Adichie went overboard in her unreasonable rantng when she described our President-elect as having emerged illegally! Pray! Isn't it the wholesome duty of a court of Law, with proper jurisdiction, to make such pronouncement or otherwise? Why did she has to pen such ridiculous words in her subjective judgement in that ill-conceived letter?
Truth, dear President Biden, is that this Adichie has lost her respect from many Nigerians with that ethnocentric letter glaringly borne out of unpatriotic tendency for our country. A clear confirmation of this reality, is from the legal practitioner and Law teacher, Prof. Yemi Oke's counter letter, in which he promptly put Adichie in her place and described her letter as seditious.
Adichie equally carried her rudeness too far when she tactically insulted American intelligence services by saying the agency is inept! How rude could she be? But we are not surprised because a character like her who could openly pen a seditious letter against her own country is also capable of insulting any other country even though such country has been so hospitable and magnanimous to her for many years. If we may advise Mr. President sir, you may consider probing the seditious nature of Adichie's ill-conceived letter, as advised by Prof. Oke, with a view to bring her to Justice in the event of finding her culpable. This will serve as deterhents to other undemocratic, unpatriotic and disrespectful elements like her.
Above all, we are grateful that your office has since done the needful by congratulating the President-elect Tinubu. Nigerians will ever be grateful for your support and fairness in nurturing the diplomatic relationship between our great country and your greatest America!, a global example of democracy!.
We urge you not to be swayed by Adichie's childish and illogical reasoning as manifested in that letter. The best treatment for such foolishness is to ignore the letter in its entirety as giving attention to it would hurt the feelings of many democratic and patriotic Nigerians who are eagerly awaiting and preparing for the swearing- in of our President-elect Tinubu, come May 29th, 2023.
We have full assurance that Tinubu's presidency will bring the eldorado the country has always crave for and that awesome process of national rebirth, rebuilding and rehabilitation, as already begun by the current President Mohammad Buhari led administration, will continue progressively from May, 29th, 2023.
We assure you Mr. President sir, that the over 200 million Nigerians who have given Tinubu the mandate to lead, will continue to hold you and your people in high esteem when you trash this ill-conceived letter from Chimamanda Adichie so that she could be properly put in her place. This fair treatment will discourage potential seditious tendencies in the future. Thank you.
signed:
1.Prof. Atilaade Olusola Adeeyo, national leader
- Dr. Abraham lnikori, 3. Barr. Amao Bodunrin, 4. Dr. Adeniyi Dupe,
- Dr Akwu Bala Peter
- Dr Ogunola Tirimisiyu Alani
- Engineer Sanni Aliyu 9. Dr Babalola Abolore Alesinloye
- GREEN ADEDIRAN OMOTUNDE