`By Atanas Walila, Nairobi
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declares the ruling party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu as president-elect after emerging the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
INEC said Tinubu garnered 8,794,726 votes, ahead of his main opponent Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520 votes.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party(LP) collected 6,101,533 votes and forth position closed by Rabiu Kwankwaso of New Nigeria People’s Party(NNPP) with 1,496,687 votes.
According to Nigerian electoral law, apart from leading in the number of votes, a candidate should get 25% of the votes in at least two-thirds of the 36 states and the federal capital Abuja, which Tinubu did.
Opposition parties rejected the results saying that gargets used by INEC suffered multiple technical errors calling on its chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to resign.
They also blame INEC for failing to upload results from each polling unit to its website as promised before the exercise.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state, promised to deal with Islamist revolutions in the Northeast, armed attacks, killings and extreme corruption that they say Buhari’s party has failed to stamp out.
Tinubu asked voters to elect him on his track record during his two terms as Lagos state governor which he reduced violent crime, improved the city’s traffic jams and cleaned up rubbish.
At one point during campaigns, the 70-year-old’s competence was doubted by citizens after having insults in his speech and skipping several campaign events.
A good number of Nigerians are contented with the results and are now looking forward to a better Nation in the government of President elect, Bola Tinubu.
