Sierra Leone Telegraph: 01 March 2023:
Bola Tinubu – the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) party has been declared the winner of Nigeria’s closest presidential election since the country’s return to democracy in 1999, after decades of military interegnum.
Tinubu won 8.8 million votes against the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar’s 6.9 million, and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi’s 6.1 million votes.
In terms of the total number of States won by each of the three main parties, APC won 12 States; PDP 12 States; and LP won 11 States including the capital Abuja. This shows how fiercely competitive the presidential race was.
Opposition parties have declared the election as fraudulent and pointed out to several lapses made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Many election observers have condemned the failure of INEC to live up to its promise to ensure that polling station results were uploaded real-time from the BVAS voter validation and votes recording system unto the INEC server last weekend.
Election observers and the opposition say that this serious failure has fataly undermined the integrity and transparency of the election process.
On Monday, over fifteen opposition parties led by the PDP called for INEC to stop the collating of results from the various States, until the problem of uploading the results unto the INEC’s servers was resolved.
Initially, the INEC Chairman – Professor Yakubu promised the opposition that he will look into their concerns before the results are declared but failed to do so, and instead early this morning went ahead to declare Tinubu – the President Elect (Photo above).
The main opposition parties, led by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are calling the results fraudulent.
Not only are the opposition parties and election observers casting doubt on the results, but they are also calling into question the constitutionality of Tinubu’s victory after he failed to win Abuja – the country’s capital.
According to the Constitution, Tinubu must win 25% of votes in Abuja the capital of Nigeria. This is what Chapter 6 of the constitution says:
The results for each of the three main parties in Abuja are as follows:
Peter Obi (Labour Party) – 281,717; Bola Tinubu (All Progressives Congress Party) – 90,902; Atiku Abubakar (People’s Democratic Party) – 74,194.
There is no doubt the opposition will be heading for the constitutional courts to have the declaration of Bola Tinuba as newly elected president overturned, and possibly force a re-run of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.
Photo below: Nigeria election – INEC Centre Abuja
What is most important now, is for all politicians in the country to tone down the rhetoric and anger, to ensure that violence does not erupt in Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million people.
All eyes are now on the forthcoming presidential and general elections in Sierra Leone.
I am not a Nigerian but my heart goes out to those who were disenfranchised. Undoubtedly, the INEC prof was not up to the job, a huge disappointment not only for Nigerians but for the Africancontinet as a whole. He better fall on his sword.