Foreign
Bola Tinubu Declared Winner of Nigeria’s Disputed Presidential Election
Following Nigeria‘s general election on Saturday, ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu has been announced as the winner with 37% of the vote according to official results.
His main rival, Atiku Abubakar, received 29% of the vote and Labour’s Peter Obi 25%.
Tinubu urged his rivals to accept the result, but Labour took legal action stating their belief in electoral fraud.
Tinubu is one of Nigeria’s richest politicians who campaigned on his record of rebuilding Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, along with a slogan of “Emi lo kan” (“It’s my turn”).
His victory comes with a record low voter turnout at the election, 27%, with only 8.8 million votes cast in Tinubu’s favour from the total of 93 million who registered.
Despite issues with electronic voting systems eliminating ballot-stuffing and apathy from the public, 87 million pre-registered to vote and issues with voting on the day along with potential voter fraud and intimidation led to fewer votes being cast than expected.
In an acceptance speech, Tinubu pushed for reconciliation between him and his rivals, and called lapses in the election ‘relatively few’.
Obi’s running-mate Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed has asked supporters to remain calm while Labour’s lawyers prepare legal action.
Tinubu has the task of solving major problems including economic stagnation and insecurity across the country, while unifying a divided nation.
He is expected to be the formidable force who will replicate the feat he achieved in Lagos – the city he redeveloped.
While the election results showed national acceptance of Tinubu, there remains the absence of a truly national party as Obi won in Christian-dominated states and the PDP support was shrunk back into northern heartlands.
Credit: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64760226
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