The presidential election results and Bola Ahmed Tinubu is Nigeria’s new President. The opposition leaders called for fresh voting and decried the polls as rigged earlier.
All Progressive Congress party represented by Tinubu earned close to 8.8 million votes which are 36.6% of the total votes. This data has been provided by Mahmood Yakubu who is Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) chairman.
Bola Ahmed defeated Atiku Abubakar of the opposition party i.e. People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who was vice president and third force candidate Peter Obi who became popular, particularly amongst youngsters.
In his acceptance speech, he thanked voters and said that he was profoundly humbled. “This is a shining moment in the life of any man and an affirmation of our democratic existence,” he said. “I represent a promise and with your support, I know that promise will be fulfilled.”
“Team up together” Tinubu appealed to his fellow contestants to strengthen the country and videos showed supporters cheering Tinubu and celebrating the win in Abuja the capital of the country.
One of the most controversial and fiercely fought elections happened this year in the country after 1999 when the country became democratic with 93 million registered votes as per INEC.
Bola Ahmed the former Lagos state governor and President Muhammadu Buhari represent the same party and Tinubu helped him to propel his seat back in 2015.
After decades Tinubu launched presidency campaign with the motto “It’s my turn” after spending decades working behind the scenes. He is now the fifth elected president of Nigeria since 1999 and has won the presidency in the first attempt.
Many have challenged the counting of votes since Saturday’s polls and alleged the process by saying that it has been taken by corruption and technical failures. The country’s opposition party also described the results of the election as heavily doctored and manipulated.
The results according to many do not reflect the wishes of Nigerians as expressed by them in polls on February 25, 2023. Further, they also said that they lost confidence in Yakubu, the electoral body chairman after the results.
Even though fresh voting was asked the spokesperson confirmed that the process had been “free, fair and credible” and INEC has also rejected the re-election’s demand.
“The election fell well short of Nigerian citizens’ reasonable expectations,” said a joint observer mission of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI).
