By Fortune Eromosele

The Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy has chided the United States for congratulating the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory during the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls.

The group in a statement in Abuja by its Public Relations Officer, Okechukwu Ifeanyi, also accused the US of using Tinubu as their stooge.

The statement read: “Is it not disgraceful that despite the shoddy and fraudulent election that was conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and despite the report from US and EU observers, the American government has gone ahead to recognise Tinubu as government?

“This is the same country that in May 2018 condemned Venezuela’s election as ‘an insult to democracy’ as low voter turnout looked to have spoiled what President Nicolás Maduro had promised would be a great ‘fiesta’ of democracy.

“In a tweet posted shortly before polling stations should have closed, the US Mission to the United Nations indicated it would reject the result. Yet, the US has gone ahead to congratulate Tinubu despite the 2023 election also being the worst since the return of democracy in Nigeria.

“The election witnessed a 27% voter turnout as only 25.2 million people voted. Venezuela witnessed a turnout of 46.07% in 2018, but the US still dismissed the voter turnout as low.

“It is obvious that the US is seeking to convert Tinubu to its stooge. Nigeria’s sovereignty has been handed over to a foreign power with Tinubu as its proxy – the new form of neo-colonialism.

“Even a ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Jim Risch, had expressed strong reservations about the rush of his own country in embracing Nigeria’s election results.”