You know you lost the election – Festus Keyamo slams Peter Obi for criticizing Tinubu/Blinken call

Minister of State for Employment, Festus Keyamo, has berated Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi after he took to his Twitter handle earlier today to call out the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, over the phone conversation he had with President-elect, Bola Tnubu, a few days ago.

In a series of Tweets, Obi opined that since the outcome of the 2023 presidential election is being contested in court, the US is expected “to await the full resolution of the ongoing judicial processes before tacitly conferring legitimacy on any of the contending parties.” According to him, Nigerians expect that “the U.S. responses to our affairs should be based on mutual respect, shared ideals, aspirations, and interests which ought to transcend the considerations of any individual”. He further stated that the United States should not respond to political developments in Nigeria in a manner that faintly suggests taking sides.

Reacting to his tweets, Keyamo said Blinken’s association with Tinubu shows that the international community does not rate the noise from Obi and his supporters.

He said the international community knows that Obi lost the election. He asked Obi to come down from his high horse and stop deceiving his supporters because everyone including Obi knows he lost the election.

He wrote;

‘’Your Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, I am sorry, but there is clarity as to the basis of the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken’s call to

@officialABAT

and their pledge for support and cooperation. It’s obvious that you and your supporters have overrated your noise and tantrums after the election as having any real effect internationally. No, they have not had any such massive effect as you would wish.

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Unfortunately for you, the US have dealt with so many opposition figures around the world and they know exactly how to separate facts from fictions. They know you lost, fair and square. They know that in a complex society like Nigeria you could not have won with your message of ‘religious war’. They know you’re just a splinter of the main opposition, the PDP, so it amounts to delusions of grandeur to think that you won when you actually came third.

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They also know the declaration of a winner already announced by INEC has the force of law and is the only acceptable legal framework upon which to proceed than your Petition in court that is yet to be decided upon. You really want this country to stand still because you have a case in court? Is that what we have practiced in this country for decades?

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Recall, sir, that when you won your second term in office as Governor of Anambra State, your opponents were in the Tribunal when you were sworn in and you got congratulatory messages from across Nigeria and the world. Did you reject those congratulatory messages because your opponents were in court? Why are you  now misleading these largely hapless mob trooping blindly after you? Why?

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As you are going about with this pretentious holier-than-thou attitude, a court of law just nullified the nomination of a number of your Party’s candidates at the last election. Are you not more worried about this development, even as it affects your own nomination as the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate?

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Mr. Peter Obi, your pontifications about the last Presidential election are getting very worrisome. They are beneath you. They are designed only to appeal to the mob. You know you lost the election; we know you know; and you know we know that you know.

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Please, come down from your high horse.”

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