by Obiri Mokini

Nigerian Refugees in Germany wish to congratulate Nigerian people and the President elect, Mr. Hamed Bola Tinubu, for a successful election that produced the best candidate as expressed by majority of Nigerian voters.

Nigerian refugees are also among victims of misrule and bad governance that has taken place in Nigeria since independence. Bad Governance has contributed to forcing many Nigerian youth outside their countries even in some cases through illegal ways.

Many Nigerians have become stranded in Germany and in other parts of Europe because their asylum applications have been rejected. Many stranded Nigerian refugees would be willing to return to their country after the inaguration of the newly elected Nigerian President because they have faith in his ability to create perspective in Nigeria. It is however sad to note that some of the participants in the just concluded Nigerian election are calling for an Interim government or military coup because these groups of people do not want Nigeria to get better. They want Nigerian youth to continue to flee Nigeria.

Photo: Hamed Bola Tinubu, newly elected President of Nigeria (licence: Chatham House, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

These groups of people have no faith in democracy. All they are calling for is the military to take over in Nigeria. This should not be allowed in Nigeria.
Those people that call for an Interim Government are enemies of democracy and they are enemies of Nigeria. Calling for an Interim government because their political party perfomed badly in the election is unfair to the majority that voted for the new government. The INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) that conducted the election are Nigerians. Some of  the  election losers are calling on the international community to come and help them conduct another election in Nigeria.
Why don’t the losers call the international community to come and rule Nigeria instead of calling the International community to come and conduct an election for Nigeria?

Nigerian stranded refugees want to go back to their country. The only way Nigerian refugees could go back to their country is when there is peace and development. Election losers should not be allowed to create violence in Nigeria by any means. Many Nigerian refugees that we spoke with have confidence in the newly elected president of Nigeria his excellency, Bola Hamed Tinubu. Election losers should stop playing people against one another hiding behind ethnic and religion − this is dangerous. Any attempt to introduce an Interim government or military coup in Nigeria will result in violence and send millions of young Nigerians out of Nigeria as refugees. This would not be the best option. We urge the EU citizens and EU government to support democracy in Nigeria and strongly condemn any act of violence that may plung Nigeria into a political crisis. The world has enough risis at present. What we need now is peace and not poltical violence of any kind.

Working with this newly elected government of Nigeria will bring a new hope of reducing illegal immigration out of Nigeria. Why do Nigerian refugees trust the newly elected president of Nigeria? He has ruled Lagos in Nigeria as governor in the past. He had a good record as governor of Lagos state. He laid a foundation for the development of Lagos and the succeessiv government in Lagos keeps building on it. Lagos is improving. Democracy is better than military dictatorship which some election losers in Nigeria are calling for. We, Nigerian refugees in Germany hereby congratulate the Nigerian President elect, his excellency Prsident Bola Hamed Tinubu. We urge the newly elected president to please focus among others on providing :

• Perspectives for the youth
• Security for all Nigerians (Stop kidnapping)
• Free education
• Women rights
• Health, clean water and electricity.

The President elect will be sworn in on the 29th of May 2023.

Congratulations to all Nigerians!