2023: We’ve lost faith in Nigeria’s electoral system – Igbo group

A socio-political organisation in the southeast has said it has lost faith in Nigeria’s electoral system ahead of the 2023 general election.

The Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, noted that it didn’t hide its reservations about the current electoral process in the country, which would signal the election of the nation’s leaders come 2023.

The President-General of the group, Prof Uzodinma Nwala, made this known in a statement signed and issued to journalists during a reception organized in honour of the former presidential aspirant, Sam Ohuabunwa, who contested for President on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Prof. Nwala described as brutal, undemocratic, and highly monetised the recent primary election of PDP that was held in May 2022.

He said: “This is a special moment for us, members of the Alaigbo Development Foundation, as we welcome one of our most remarkable leaders, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, who has just returned to us after a brutal encounter with the undemocratic mode of selection of candidates for the presidency of the Federation of Nigeria.

“Right from the beginning of the current electoral process, even before and in fact till tomorrow, the ADF never hid her lack of faith in the highly monetised and corrupt electoral system in Nigeria.

“What Ohuabnunwa has undergone is a brutal experience with the Nigerian electoral system, which ADF has consistently referred to as the game only vampires can play.

“ADF is of the view that Ohuabunwa lost in the undemocratic delegates mode of selection in the Nigerian electoral system and that the masses of Nigeria had no hand in what happened at the National Stadium on May 28 and 29, 2022.”

Speaking at the reception, Ohuabunwa, said the occasion rekindled his burning desire to replicate the Igbo entrepreneurial attitude in the Nigerian system, saying he wasn’t oblivious that Nigerians watched keenly as events unfolded before, during, and after the presidential elections.

While thanking the ADF for the honour accorded to him, he observed that the Igbos were currently misconstrued, mischaracterized, and misunderstood in the country, adding the people of the South-East region were broad-minded, accommodating, and fair play seekers.

He said, “You know when you go into this race sometimes, it’s a fairly lonely battle and you know, everybody is watching you as if you are a movie.

“As I often say, the Igbo man in Nigeria is not well-represented. He’s largely mis-characterized, misunderstood, and mis-profiled. And one of my desire is if I have an opportunity, I will show the difference. I tried to show the best of what a Nigerian of Igbo extraction can be.

“We seek justice, equity and fairly. We are a people who move on in life inspite of challenges and we are also interested in others moving on , too. We are not lazy; we are not laid-back; we are not fraudulent and we are not mischievous and we are not mercantilist. But we have a sense of justice and equity; we don’t like to beg.”