Following the cancelled visit of Bill Clinton, former United States President, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, spokesperson for the Buhari Campaign Organisation, said the cancellation was a welcome development, insisting that foreign observers should not interfere in Nigeria’s electoral process.
Clinton cancelled his planned trip to Nigeria ahead of Saturday’s general elections, saying the visit could be “politicized.”
The former US President was scheduled to visit the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, this week alongside the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland.
The planned trip was facilitated by the Kofi Annan Foundation and the National Peace Committee, NPC, led by former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Reacting to Clinton’s cancelled visit, Keyamo, said the world had seen how imperfect the American system is.
He said: “We cannot give reasons more than what he said. We have always said that we do not want them to come and interfere in our process and make prejudicial comments. At times, they over step their bounds.
”We welcome them, we appreciate them but once they begin to suggest what we should and how we should do, that is when we say no.
“They should just observe and write their reports because the world has seen the challenge with the American system now.
”The world has seen how imperfect the American system is, so they cannot be any torchlight to anyone in the world.”
Reacting to the comments of the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, that President Muhammadu Buhari was promoting violence in his campaigns, Keyamo said the President never called for violence in Zamfara State but was “only weighing in on a joke”.
Atiku had on Monday at his party’s presidential rally in Port Harcourt, accused Buhari of preaching violence, saying it was not the President’s first time of doing so.
Keyamo said Atiku made the accusation out of frustration, having sensed a comprehensive defeat in the forthcoming presidential election.
He said in a statement: “Typical of the PDP and Atiku’s Campaign team, they have continued in their favourite pastime of peddling falsehood, scaremongering and misinformation.
“This time, the candidate of the main opposition himself, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, sensing a comprehensive defeat this Saturday and out of frustration, threw caution to the wind in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Monday, February 11, 2019, when he alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari called for violence when he campaigned in Zamfara State.
“Nothing can be farther from the truth. The Hausa word the President used in Zamfara, which has been taken out of context, is “fitna”. Incidentally all our Hausa language scholars have said the word means different things: it means distress, trial, affliction or temptation. It can also be used to describe rebellion or uprising.
“In this case, President Buhari was actually weighing in on the joke told very often of recent in the North that due to the rice boom, farmers have embarked on pilgrimage and the marrying of more wives.
”So, what the President meant was actually a joke deliberately taken out of context: he simply told the crowd to ensure they eat very well because of the rice boom before they can contemplate giving in to those temptations.
“Even in some private meetings with our campaign team, the President has always commented on this joke. Sadly, out of desperation, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has decided to peddle falsehood.
“We urge Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to realize that it is God Almighty that gives power and takes power. He should not use his palpable desperation to return to power (in order to sell Nigeria to his “friends” and to make them rich) to set this nation ablaze by outright falsehood.”
