AS the presidential poll kick-starts the 2019 elections on Saturday, a former Minister of External Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has called on the Nigerian political leadership, party supporters and the electorate to avoid a repeat of what he described as the Venezuelan nightmare where the international community recognized the opposition leader as the country’s alternative president.

Akinyemi, who is the initiator of the peace initiatives that preceded the 2015 elections, stated this in a press release he personally signed and issued on Sunday, adding that he had been filled with much dread and trepidation over the forthcoming elections.

He urged the contestants in the elections not to be desperate but seek for legal means in case the elections were not free and fair, warning that the country should heed the notice put forward by the international community, especially the United States and the United Kingdom.

“I write as a former member of the Electoral Reform Committee, as the former deputy chairman of the 2014 National Conference, as a former foreign minister and as the originator of the peace process before the 2015 presidential election.

“Since I have been monitoring elections in Nigeria, I cannot remember any elections that filled me with so much dread and trepidation as these forthcoming elections. Not even the riotous 1965 Federal elections. And we all know what that led to.