Nigerian musician David Adeleke, professionally known as Davido, says Nigeria’s February 25 presidential election that saw the emergence of All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Tinubu as president-elect was not credible.
The award-winning musician made the assertion during an interview with Lagos-based Beat FM as he embarked on a media tour to promote his newly released 17-track album ‘Timeless’.
Speaking about the 2023 presidential election which has been tagged the “worst election” in history of Nigeria by leading opposition parties, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), Davido said he believes the election was not credible.
“I was happy that people were not really coming at me because I wasn’t even online,” referring to his months-long social media hiatus mourning the death of his late son Ifeanyi Adeleke.
He added: “If I was online, I would have been vocal about it (the general election)”
“… but for me, I was not happy about it and I’m just being honest. It is what it is but for me personally, I do not feel that was a credible election to me. I feel like the most important thing is the safety, lives of everybody in all but that was not,” the singer said.
Davido comes from a family with deep influence in the politics of his native Osun State, South-West Nigeria.
His uncle, Ademola Adeleke, is the incumbent governor of Osun under opposition People’s Democratic Party. The Adeleke political dynasty has had a long-running battle against the APC for political control.
The Nigerian presidential election drew intense scrutiny from both private individuals and entities, both locally and internationally over the credibility of the election significantly triggered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit results during collation.
The two leading candidates in the election, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have both filed petitions at the presidential election tribunal asking to be declared the winner of the election, citing massive rigging by the APC and the ineligibility of Mr Tinubu over a previous criminal case in the United States.
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