EU lacks adequate manpower, relied on rumors, hearsay for its 2023 election report- Presidency

Contextual Story

By Emmy Joe

The President Bola Tinubu led government has downplayed the credibility of the European Union report on the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, which saw the emergence of Mr Tinubu as the country’s president.

Questioning the credibility of the report in a statement released on Sunday, Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the president on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, argued that the EU’s coverage of Nigeria’s 2023 general election was limited arguing that the foreign body heavily relied on rumours and hearsay to makeup it’s report.

“We would like to know and even ask EU, how it reached the conclusions in the submitted final report with the very limited coverage of the elections by their observers who, without doubt, relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads,” the statement read.

Further discrediting the foreign body’s verdict on the 2023 general election in Nigeria, Mr Alake said that the report was a “product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1,000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day.”

in its final report on the 2023 general election, the EU-EOM noted that while Nigerians’ support for democracy was evident, the elections also revealed enduring systemic flaws, signaling the need for additional legislative and administrative changes to improve transparency, inclusivity, and accountability.

Additionally, it stated that flaws in the legal system and electoral procedures undermined confidence in INEC and made it difficult