By Aliu Akoshile
Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been declared President-elect of Nigeria, four days after the tension-soaked general elections in Africa’s most populous country.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, who is also the national returning officer, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said the former Governor of Lagos State polled 8,794,726 votes to win Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.
The nation’s Electoral Act stipulates that the winner must have the highest total score and a minimum of 25% of votes cast in at least two-thirds of the States of the Federation and Federal Capital Territory.
Addressing the media at the National Electoral Situation Room at the International Collation Centre in Abuja around 4.10am on Wednesday, Prof. Yakubu said Tinubu satisfied the constitutional requirements for election as Nigeria’s President.
Said he: “That Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and returned elected.”
Trailing Tinubu in the race were presidential candidates of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, and New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Professor Yakubu said the final computation of votes cast for the frontline candidates shows APC’s Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes, PDP’s Atiku polled 6,984,520 votes, LP’s Obi scored 6,101,533 votes while NNPP’s Kwankwaso got 1,496,687 votes.
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A further analysis of the master result also shows that each of the two leading presidential candidates won in 12 of the 36 states in Nigeria, the Labour Party’s candidate won in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, while NNPP’s candidate won only in his native Kano State.
Further breakdown of the figures indicates that the former Governor of Lagos State significantly edged Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President and a serial contestant for the Presidency, with a total 1,810,206 votes.
Aside the four leading candidates, the remaining 14 presidential candidates include Dumebi Kachikwu of the African Democratic Congress, ADC; Kola Abiola, People’s Redemption Party, PRP; Omoyele Sowore, Africa Action Congress, AAC; Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party, SDP; Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Young Progressive Party, YPP; Christopher Imumulen, Accord Party, AP; and Peter Umeadi, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
Others are Yusuf Mamman Dan Talle, Allied Peoples MovementAPM; Hamza Al-Mustapha, Action Alliance, AA; Sani Yabagi Yusuf, Action Democratic Party, ADP; Nnnadi Osita, Action Peoples Party,APP; Oluwafemi Adenuga, Boot Party, BP; Osakwe Felix Johnson, National Rescue Movement, NRM; and Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu, Zenith Labour Party, ZLP.
Tinubu has been a pillar of democracy and godfather of politics in Nigeria since the early 1990s when he won election as a Senator of the Federal Republic, following his disengagement from Mobil Producing Unlimited where he was Treasurer.
A first time contestant for Presidency of Nigeria and two-term Governor of Lagos State from 1999 too 2007, Bola Tinubu played historic roles in restoring the mandates of many Governors in South West, Edo and other parts of the country by supporting the rigorous legal processes and offering political clout to deepen democratic ethos in Africa’s economic giant.
Tinubu who is widely acknowledged as the Jagaban Borgu and architect of APC, a coalition of four opposition parties, which for the first time in Nigeria’s civil rule, outsted the ruling President Goodluck Jonathan PDP government that has been in power for 16 years.
There is high expectation that the Tinubu government will deepen Nigeria’s commitment to various international deadlines for Climate Change mitigation and adaptation for sustainable environment.
