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By John Ogunsemore
African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain, Chief Dele Momodu said he has almost given up on Nigeria.
Momodu stated this in a Thursday virtual interview shared on X while giving a grim assessment of last Saturday’s Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The journalist-cum-politician said he was not impressed with the conduct of the election, which he described as “shambolic” and “extremely bad”.
Momodu expressed dismay that FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, whom he described as an interested party, was allowed to move from one polling unit to another during the polls.
He explained that many citizens have lost faith in the electoral process, hence the low voter turnout experienced.
He said, “I’m a member of opposition. My duty is not to praise an election that was shambolic, an election in which an interested party, an interested minister, was allowed to go from polling unit to polling unit saying he is monitoring. Someone that you know is so tempestuous and so interested in the election. He was being allowed to roam about.
“So, they should have allowed members of other parties to roam about, maybe they’ll allow our National Chairman, a retired army general (Senator David Mark), to move from polling unit to polling unit saying he wants to make sure election is free and fair.
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“I have almost virtually given up on our country.”
Momodu castigated those praising the election, saying “people justify anything.”
He added, “That election was extremely bad. Even look at how many people came out to vote.”
The ADC chieftain also faulted the restriction of movement imposed because of the election.
He said, “A minister came out to say the president told him to shut down Abuja, to declare a curfew. That’s not an election. So are you going to declare a curfew in a nationwide election because people want to vote? People vote all over the world freely. They go about their businesses. I witnessed an election in Ghana and nobody was disturbed. You’ll go and vote and if you decide you want to monitor your vote, you stay there. Nobody will harass you. They’ll just tell you to keep some distance so we can see what we’re doing.
“Nigeria is going backwards under APC. It’s a shame and APC needs to be ashamed itself that we cannot conduct an election in one city in Abuja peacefully.
“People could not go to where they registered. Some people got there and could not find their names. And you’ll tell me it was a fantastic election? We shouldn’t do this to our country. It seems we hate our country so much that we just talk nonsense these days.”
