Being remarks by Executive Director, National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, Lloyd Ukwu, [W. Bruce DelValle, Esq., General Counsel] at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. over the 2023 Nigerian Election Crisis.Members of NADECO here present, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, I bring you greetings on behalf of NADECO and the people of Nigeria.
NADECO welcomes you to the first of its series of events planned over the next several weeks regarding the recently held Presidential election in Nigeria.
For those who are not quite familiar with NADECO, below is a bit about the group:
The National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, is Nigeria’s premier and foremost pro-democracy group based in Washington D.C. It was initially registered in Nigeria in 1994 by a group of very prominent politicians and of pro-democracy campaigners who needed a platform to fight the military regime of the infamous dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, after he took power through a military coup in November 1993 and reneged on his promises to hold elections and return Nigeria to democracy as was its birthright since obtaining freedom from British colonial rule on October 1, 1960. A broad-based coalition transcending ethnic and religious lines was formed which later gave birth to NADECO in Nigeria. No sooner had NADECO begun a peaceful resistance against the military than General Abachi started to assassinate and jail its members. In order to save their lives several of NADECO members fled into exile to neighboring African countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. In 1995 those NADECO who fled from Nigeria got together and registered a new NADECO in the U.S.A. Since 1995, the date NADECO was registered in the U.S.A., it has continued to relentlessly push for good governance, the rule of law and credible elections in Nigeria.
NADECO alleges that the election results pronounced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (“INEC”), February 25-26, 2023, are fundamentally at odds with Nigerian election laws and constitute wholesale disenfranchisement of Nigerian voters caused by the pervasive rot of Nigeria’s increasingly kleptocratic political structure.
NADECO demands that INEC draw back its curtains to let the full light of truth prove the transparency and veracity of the 2023 electoral processes. It is without question that nearly all of the electoral reforms implemented to safeguard the 2023 Nigerian elections have been savaged by INEC and scattered to the winds of tyranny. It is beyond debate that initial investigation into the 2023 Nigerian Presidential Elections inexorably discloses that Nigeria’s most recent election is the polar opposite of transparency, fairness and electoral integrity. This election was polluted by blatant bribery and widespread corruption – even INEC itself has admitted to its abject failures to comply with the requisite transparency laws mandating real-time electronic transmission of election results from the polling units to the public, instead opting to cloak the electronic results in darkness before emerging with a declared rather than proved “winner” who is presently incapable of being fully embraced by the World.
The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC action clearly constitutes negligence per se and electoral fraud, as it violated the very statutory provisions and guidelines that are designed to protect against the type of fraud caused by its failure to transmit the results in real time. The people of Nigeria are supposed to be the ones the statute is designed to protect, instead, they have found themselves at the receiving end of the resulting gross injustice.
NADECO maintains that the 2023 Nigerian Presidential Election is an attempt to disenfranchise the Nigerian people through the Four Horsemen of Democracy’s Doom - Bribery, Voter Intimidation, Insecurity, and Vote Rigging, all harnessed to skew the results of the 2023 Nigerian Presidential Election.
NADECO calls upon the people and the Judiciary of Nigeria and the International Community to join hands in a concerted effort toward global condemnation and absolute rejection of the hasty, hollow, and illegitimate result declared by INEC as being contrary to the will of the people and the rule of law.
NADECO hereby takes the following positions to lead a global call for action to redress INEC’s duplicity that endangers democracy in the Giant of Africa:
NADECO is gravely concerned about the irregularities, voter intimidation, violence, the breach of the National Electoral Act, and most importantly the abrupt and hurried pronouncement of the dubious 2023 Presidential Election results. This, in our viewpoint, signals a wholesale disenfranchisement of voters in Africa’s largest nation.
NADECO’s goals and singular mandate have always been to fight for the rule of law and democracy in Nigeria as Nigeria’s watchdog of democracy.
NADECO hereby, as a first step, formally severs its relationship with Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a former founding member of NADECO (U.S.A.) for his participation in the worst electoral fraud in Nigeria’s recent history.
NADECO and Tinubu fought Abacha as the military dictator who scuttled the will of the Nigerian people in 1993 June 12 elections. Ironically, exactly 30 years later, in 2023, NADECO is fighting the same species of dictatorship but only this time a much more dangerous civilian dictatorship – a kleptocracy- mostly perpetuated by one of those who fought Abacha then. NADECO will not look the other way simply because the fraud was perpetrated by one of its founding members.
NADECO urges the Biden administration to withhold any recognition of the product of the flawed election prior to proof the electoral process reflects the will of the Nigerian People and was without substantive corruption and fraud.
NADECO further entreats the U.S. Congress to introduce a Resolution calling on the U.S. administration not to recognize the product of the election. It is the product of a poisonous tree.
NADECO calls on the international community to support the empaneling of a team of internationally acclaimed technical experts to examine and analyze the INEC servers, and BVAS, etc. to extract the original votes.
NADECO implores the Nigerian People and the Judiciary of Nigeria, acting in concert with the International Community, to join together in a concerted effort toward global condemnation and absolute rejection of the hasty, hollow, and illegitimate result declared by INEC as being contrary to the will of the people and the rule of law.
NADECO demands that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (lNEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, MUST resign or be removed immediately.
NADECO urgently requests that all Countries worldwide, especially the United States, place an immediate visa ban upon Prof. Mahmoud.
NADECO solemnly exhorts the U.S. to not deviate from its democratic standards in Africa just because it fears competition with China and seeks to curry favor with illegitimate dictators who come to power through bribery, force, intimidation, and vote rigging. The U.S. should come out and condemn the apparent corruption of the electoral process, and impose an immediate visa ban on those suspected to have compromised the polls.
NADECO demands that President Buhari and INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu should be held jointly and severally liable and accountable by the Nigerian Courts and the International Community for what is currently happening across Nigeria in the days following the 2023 elections, and for what could happen in the next few weeks should INEC’s noxious banquet be forced down Nigerian’s throats.
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