A former Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff, General Alani Akinrinade, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s call to cancel the 2023 general elections on the basis of alleged compromise and manipulation. 

Akinrinade made this call in a press statement he issued and made available to Vanguard on Tuesday.

According to him, being not neutral, Obasanjo’s intervention falls short of patriotism and fits perfectly into meddling in the affairs of the state which is already the constitutional responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The statement reads partly, “Nigerians can easily recall the Obasanjo years and his democratic antics and many bullish attempts at circumventing the political process.

“I call on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore Obasanjo’s recent interruptions and focus on supporting the lawful institution to do its job by allowing the process to run its full course.”

The former Chief of Army Staff said President Buhari he knows will let the process run its full course and will not intervene in an undemocratic manner to truncate the ongoing political process. 

He said, “Luckily, President Buhari is made of finer and more principled democratic stuff.

“He will not allow Obasanjo to lure him into tainting his democratic credentials in this regard. I recall that in his last trip to the United States, President Joe Biden praised Buhari’s commitment to democratic values and principles. Obasanjo has no such record to be applauded.

“The world has not forgotten his fraudulent and undemocratic attempt at a third-term agenda in violation of the letter and spirit of the Nigerian constitution. 

“In 2007, after his botched third-term bid, Obasanjo conducted the worst election in the history of Nigeria.

“The beneficiary of that electoral heist, Late President Umaru Yar’Adua openly admitted that his presidency was a product of a fraudulent election with a commitment to reform the electoral process.

“Nigerians have voted. Their votes have counted.  Let no one disrupt the process,” he said.