#nIGERIADECIDEs: APC’s Bola Tinubu declared President-elect of Nigeria by INEC

*Final results of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria tabulated

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

Amidst deep controversy, All Progressives Candidate (APC)’s presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has won a tight race to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari as the next President of Nigeria.

Chairman of the nation’s electoral umpire Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared that Tinubu, “having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected” and was at 4:10am on Wednesday.

Tinubu polled 8,794,726 million votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and surprise frontrunner Dr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), who scored 6,984,520 million and 6,101,533 million, respectively, to emerge President hours after three opposition parties called for cancellation of what they called a “sham” of an election thereby making his emerge controversial as it stands.

The former two-term Governor of Lagos State, seen as the most influential political godfather in current Nigerian history, lost his historic stronghold of Lagos to Obi, candidate of an hitherto unpopular political party whose surprise climbs in the election process will not be forgotten in the history of Nigeria as one that attempted to divine Nigerians along the ethnic and religion lines.

The DEFENDER reports that Tinubu’s would-be predecessor lost his home state of Katsina, his party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu lost his state of Nasarawa to Obi, his closest political allies in recent time, Governors of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano) and Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai (Kaduna) lost their respective states to an obviously one-state focused New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and leading opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded presidential election.

However, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was ultimately successful in his bid to become Nigeria’s First President since the return of democracy in 1999.

The newly elected President of Nigeria began in 1992 when he was elected Senator in Lagos West, the position he left one year after when the June 12, 1993 presidential election presumably won by Alhaji Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola expected to consolidate the Third Republic in which he was a senator, was aborted by the Justice Ikpeme’s court at the instance of vehement activities of the “Association for Better Nigeria (ABM)” led by South East’s Arthur Nzeribe.

The June 12, 1993 presidential election results already being released were finally annulled on the strength Nzeribe’s activity that secured the Ikpeme’s court judgement and that annulment was made possible by the then military regime.

As described in a media report, Tinubu’s magnum opus came in 2015 when his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) merged with Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and two other prominent political parties namely All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) led by Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, a faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) led by then Governor of Imo State Chief Rochas Okorocha, and then ruling PDP’s faction called the New PDP led by then Kwara State Governor Abubakar Bukola Saraki, to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) that unseated incumbent ruling PDP-led Federal Government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Political pundits speculated it was only a matter of time before Tinubu launched an attempt to claim the presidency for himself, resulting in the “Emi lokan” (Yoruba for “it’s my turn”) slogan that came to define his campaign.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and African Democratic Congress (CDC) had addressed a press conference calling for the cancellation of the election results, saying the poll was a “sham” and merely “vote allocation and not collation”.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja late on Tuesday, Vice Presidential Candidate of Labour Party, Senator Yusuf Datti-Ahmed, described the election that was about to produce the next Nigerian President as one that founded on illegality and that the Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC promoted that illegality.

Datti-Ahmed cited instances of INEC itself breaching the laws and guidelines set by itself to secure all-confidence in the election that the results would be transmitted from polling unit to the INEC server which the Labour party running mate expressed sadness and distrust that did not happen.

The PDP on its own believes that it would never be party of any “sham” called presidential election and, this way, the election that produced Tinubu as Nigeria’s next President has continued to be product of distrust according to the main opposition party.

Final results of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria tabulated: