The Neo Africana Centre has described as tendentious and ludicrous the prediction by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) will not upturn the victory of Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election. The Centre said such a tendentious reading of the proceedings in the PEPC is lazy and contrived as it is not supported by logic or common sense. The public policy think tank said it painstakingly went through the report by EIU but regretted that it could not find where the body adduced any reason to support its prediction. It said what it saw instead was a laborious rigmarole aimed at arriving at a predetermined answer.

In a statement by its Director of Public Affairs, Jenkins Udu, the Centre said the EIU prediction fell far below expectation and should therefore be consigned to the ash heaps of irrelevance. It wondered why the EIU did not take into consideration the roguery that went into the election as well as the wide condemnation of its outcome by both local and foreign observers before embarking on its embarrassing revisionism.

The statement reads in part: “We have just come across a tendentious and ludicrous report said to have emanated from the confines of The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The report predicted that the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) will not upturn the victory awarded to Bola Tinubu by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the February 25 presidential election. We painstakingly went through the report with the hope that aspects of it will tell us in concrete terms why EIU reached that conclusion.

“Regrettably, we found none. What was dished out in copious doses were issues that are not, in any way, remotely connected with the petitions before the PEPC. We were thoroughly disappointed because we had thought that a reputable organization such as the EIU would live up to its name. But it did not. If anything, the report on which the prediction was anchored read like a piece of balderdash with a predetermined objective. There were no facts or figures to support the prediction. There was even no clear-cut assertion that lends credence to the fallacious conclusion.

“In the absence of any reason or evidence to support its prediction, the report sheepishly went off the mark to talk about irrelevances like market reforms. In fact, the report, as procured as it must have been, could not sustain its defence of the wobbly Tinubu administration. What do you say of a report which says that the inflation which Tinubu met at 22.6 percent in May will rise sharply over 2023 and into 2024?

“We find this tendentious reading of the proceedings at the PEPC not only laughable but ludicrous. We are disappointed that the EIU brushed aside the wide condemnations of the election by both local and foreign observers, a situation which has tainted the credibility of the election as well as its outcome. We are convinced that the EIU is on a sinister mission to lie to the world about Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election. But the inglorious mission has failed abysmally. That is why what the EIU called a report reads like a poorly crafted opinion lacking in substance and informed viewpoint.

“May we remind the EIU that neither Nigerians nor members of the PEPC will be led by the nose in this matter. The people know what the issues are and they expect that the position of the courts will reflect the hard facts before them. Their Lordships at the PEPC are no kindergartens and cannot therefore be tutored by compromised institutions. We dare say that insidious attempts at influencing the courts such as the one EIU is making is cheap and unprofessional. Members of the Nigerian bench are too sophisticated to be so easily pigeonholed.

“Pretenders such as EIU should also know that Nigerians cannot be led by the nose. Otherwise, what was the point in telling us that Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential candidate in the election under dispute, will be a formidable force in 2027? This is a back-handed compliment. Peter Obi is already a formidable force and Nigerians do not need anybody to tell them that. For EIU to put it out as a projection is patronizing. Nigerians do not need this psychological massaging.”

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