Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State For Labour and Employment, has berated the February 25 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, over his comments on the phone conversation between the United States (U.S.) Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, and President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Information Nigeria had reported that Bliken told Tinubu on Tuesday on the phone that the Joe Biden administration is committed to strengthening ties with Nigeria.
The US Secretary stated that the U.S.— Nigeria partnership is built on shared interests and strong people-to-people ties and that those links should continue strengthening under Tinubu’s tenure.
However, reacting via a statement on Twitter, Peter Obi said the US responses to Nigeria’s affairs should be based on mutual respect, shared ideals, aspirations, and interests which ought to transcend the considerations of any individual.
According to the former governor of Anambra State, the United States is meant to wait for the full resolution of the ongoing judicial processes before tacitly conferring legitimacy on any of the contending parties.
Keyamo, in response to Obi’s statement via Twitter on Friday, said there is clarity to the basis of the phone conversation between Tinubu and Blinken and their pledge for support and cooperation.
He added that, the United States is aware that in a complex society like Nigeria, Peter Obi could not have won the 2023 election, especially with his message of religious war.
According to Keyamo, the U.S. also knows that INEC’s declaration of a winner has the force of law and Obi’s petition in court is the only acceptable legal framework upon which to proceed and it is yet to be decided.
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Keyamo further questioned the former governor of Anambra State if he wants the country to be on hold over his court case.
He tweeted: “Your Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, It’s obvious that you and your supporters have overrated your noise and tantrums after the election as having any real effect internationally. No, they have not had any such massive effect as you would wish.
“Unfortunately for you, the US have dealt with so many opposition figures around the world and they know exactly how to separate facts from fictions. They know you lost, fair and square. They know that in a complex society like Nigeria you could not have won with your message of ‘religious war’. They know you’re just a splinter of the main opposition, the PDP, so it amounts to delusions of grandeur to think that you won when you actually came third.”
“Recall, sir, that when you won your second term in office as Governor of Anambra State, your opponents were in the Tribunal when you were sworn in and you got congratulatory messages from across Nigeria and the world. Did you reject those congratulatory messages because your opponents were in court? Why are you now misleading these largely hapless mob trooping blindly after you? Why?
“As you are going about with this pretentious holier-than-thou attitude, a court of law just nullified the nomination of a number of your Party’s candidates at the last election. Are you not more worried about this development, even as it affects your own nomination as the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate?” Keyamo queried.
