***Questions Silence on Nigeria’s 2023 Election Failure
The Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has taken a swipe at ECOWAS, accusing the regional body of applying double standards in its response to democratic disruptions in West Africa.
Obi said while ECOWAS swiftly condemned the “military-arranged coup glitch” in Guinea-Bissau, the bloc remained conspicuously silent over Nigeria’s unresolved “technical glitch” during the 2023 general elections.
In a statement titled “Reflecting on the ‘Coup Glitches’ in Guinea-Bissau,” released on his X handle on Sunday, Obi argued that any glitch—whether caused by guns or technology—undermines democracy and should attract equal scrutiny.
Obi recounted arriving in Abuja on November 27 from a meeting at the European Parliament, only to learn that former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was monitoring the Guinea-Bissau polls, had been caught up in the reported coup scare. After confirming Jonathan’s safety, Obi said he listened closely to the former president’s account, which raised fresh doubts about the authenticity of the so-called coup.
According to Jonathan, the alleged coup felt “suspicious,” especially because it was announced by the incumbent president, despite the election being peaceful and awaiting only the formal release of results.
Obi contrasted the episode with Nigeria’s elections: “Nigeria’s election was crippled by a ‘technical glitch’; Guinea-Bissau is facing a ‘coup glitch.’ Yet, nobody has explained Nigeria’s glitch to this day.”
He challenged ECOWAS to apply the same energy it deployed in Guinea-Bissau to cases where democracy is manipulated through “convenient technological failures.”
“Do we only condemn coups when guns are visible? What happens when democracy is subverted through software glitches timed perfectly to disrupt results?”
Obi warned that both forceful coups and engineered electoral breakdowns achieve the same outcome: silencing the people and weakening democratic institutions.
He noted that transparency and accountability are the bedrock of credible elections, adding that West Africa cannot afford repeated disruptions—whether political or technical—that rob citizens of their mandate.
“The Guinea-Bissau scenario and Nigeria’s 2023 experience are two faces of the same democratic crisis. In both cases, democracy is the casualty and the people are denied their choice.”
Reiterating his call for electoral reforms across the region, Obi said a more stable and truly democratic West Africa is achievable when leaders prioritize the will of the people over political convenience.
