By Nnasom David

Former Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has revealed that he encountered significant challenges in attempting to counter the narrative that the 2023 presidential election was rigged.

Speaking on Tuesday at a summit of former government spokespersons held in Abuja, Mohammed—who served under President Muhammadu Buhari during whose tenure the 2023 general elections were conducted—shared insights into the media engagement efforts led by his team.

According to him, despite actively engaging with international media outlets such as Voice of America, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy Magazine, Associated Press, BBC, and others, many foreign journalists and analysts lacked a full understanding of Nigeria’s constitutional provisions regarding presidential elections.

He explained: “Allegations of rigging had surfaced, largely centered around the delay in uploading results to the IReV portal—which, notably, plays no role in the official collation of election results.

“I led my team to the United Kingdom and the United States to engage directly with key international media organisations and influential think tanks. Our goal was to present them with irrefutable facts on how the election was won and lost.

“We met with journalists and representatives from Voice of America, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy Magazine, Associated Press, BBC, The Economist, Reuters, Bloomberg, Politico, Hudson Institute, U.S. Institute of Peace, Atlantic Council, and Chatham House, among others.”

Mohammed noted that many of these organisations were unaware of the constitutional requirement outlined in Chapter 6, Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which stipulates that a presidential candidate must not only win the majority of votes but also secure at least 25% of the votes in no fewer than two-thirds of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

He elaborated: “Based on this, we made it clear that neither the PDP nor LP candidates had a viable path to victory. We presented the breakdown: the LP candidate placed a distant third, trailing the APC candidate by approximately 2.7 million votes.

“The APC candidate not only won the highest number of votes but also secured 25% of the vote in 29 states—well above the constitutional threshold. The PDP candidate, who came second, met the 25% requirement in only 21 states, while the LP candidate achieved it in just 15 states. Both fell short of the constitutional criteria for victory.”

To further counter the rigging allegations, Mohammed said his team presented evidence that the APC lost in key states with large voter populations—Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, and Katsina—despite all four having APC governors.