The presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Kingsley Muoghalu has declared himself as the winner of the just concluded general election.
Muoghalu who made the declaration while appearing on Channels Televisiin said the February 23 presidential poll was the worst in history and Nigerians that voted, ‘too timid’ to have allowed it to happen.
The YPP candidate said he was disappointed at the manner the votes meant for his party were “stolen, diverted and suppressed.”
Muoghalu, who had banked on the Nigerian youths to sway the votes to his side during the campaigns for the election, said he was particularly scandalised that the same people who were all over the social media complaining about their parlous situation, eventually endorsed to remain in their prostrate position.
Speaking on the recent release of the details of its spending for last year, which he said emerged out of sustained pressure in the past by civil society organisations for accountability in the National Assembly, he time had come for Nigerians to take their fate in their hands as in other countries to redeem their country.
Hear him: “Nigeria has the highest paying legislators in the world making laws for the poorest people on earth. It’s very ironic. Then, the next thing I want to raise is the role of the citizenry in forcing accountability in governance. Nigerians have been too timid. And that is why politicians have taken them on a ride for too long. But thanks to the pressure of some civil society and some citizens, this has been brought about. We need more of that pressure for open and accountable governance.
“Look at what is happening in Sudan, look at what is happening all over the world. Citizens are becoming more and more demanding about accountability in governance. Nigerians need it like oxygen. Nigerians don’t understand that you have to go to the streets in a peaceful manner to protest, carry placards to put government under pressure on things that are going wrong and demand what is your due. You don’t have 24hour electricity, who is protesting about it and we’ve had it for decades. We just assume it’s a way of life.”
Relating the need for Nigerians to demand the best to the recent elections, he said, whilst in some states, expressed disatisfaction with governance at their level, the situation was quite different at the national level.
“The elections were the worst in a long time in my view. I was disappointed with the result of the election. But I want you to know that the outcome of the election reflected where Nigerians want to be at this time. It’s not a reflection on me, it’s not a reflection on my candidacy, it’s a choice that Nigerians themselves have made that this is where we want to be at this time. They had the information and we provided them with the opportunity, but you saw that most of the votes went predominantly to the APC and the PDP.
“The biggest disappointment, was with the youth. The youth voting was absent. They make a lot of noise. They rant and rave on the social media but you don’t see them on the voting day. And when they vote, they don’t vote in line with their rhetoric. So, you find that Nigerian citizens are still politically lethergic.”
He condemned both the process of the elections and their outcomes, particularly the lack of grip of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with the logistics and the actual conduct in terms of voting and counting of votes, saying there were credible reasons to believe that the entire process was heavily rigged, calling for a complete overhaul of the system.
“Of course, there were credible allegations of rigging. I, myself experienced what I would call diversion of votes, suppression of votes. I’m not saying that I was rigged out. The truth is, based on the fact that Nigerians had made their choice to remain with the status quo, I didn’t win the election. So, I’m not claiming that I won the election and was rigged out. I want to be very clear. But I know for a fact that our votes were stolen, our votes were diverted, our votes were suppressed. And for this reason, the numbers attributted to the YPP at the final count, is a joke,” he said.
He said Nigerians mere succumbed to the political industrial complex. “The machines of the PDP and APC were still dominant. But something has happened. Everywhere I go in Nigeria today, many people are congratulating me as if I won the election. And I’m like, I didn’t win, but they say, no, you won. You won something. You may not be able to quantify it in the numer of votes, but you have opened up a space. Nigerians have seen the alternative, a way that we should be moving towards. That in itself is a very important victory in terms of our political development as a country.
“The next thing that needs to happen is a reform of the elctoral system, the voting process to cut down on rigging and manipulations, so that that opportunity for citizens to make the choices that would actually count.”
Muoghalu, said the renewal of the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari, had given him the last chance to leave a positive legacy in Nigeria, saying that he must look back at the past four years and make amends about those issues that had made Nigerians cry out, especially in the same areas he campaigned and won his first election in 2015.
