Tinubu takes Nigeria in closely-fought presidential election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the 2023 presidential election. 

The commission's chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced the former Lagos governor winner of the election after four days of collating the results of the February 25 election at the National Collation Centre in Abuja.

Tinubu won 12 states across the country, the same as his two closest rivals, but he secured more votes than Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). The third republic senator secured 8,794,726 to defeat Atiku who finished second with 6,984,520 votes and Obi who finished third with 6,101,533 votes.

The LP and PDP have strongly condemned INEC's handling of the election and rejected the collation process for not being transparent enough. They accused the APC of rigging the polls, called for the cancellation of the election and demanded the resignation of Yakubu.

The election is the most closely contested since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999. Tinubu lost his home state of Lagos but recovered with wins in key areas including Rivers, Zamfara, Borno, Jigawa, Kogi and Kwara. He also won in Benue, Ekiti, Niger, Ogun, Ondo and Oyo.

Atiku won in his native Adamawa, as well as in Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe.

Obi swept through his southeast region — Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. He also won in Cross River, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Nasarawa, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) polled nearly a million votes in Kano to win the state and finish with a total of 1,496,687 votes. He also joined calls for the election to be cancelled a day after the LP and PDP walked out of the National Collation Centre.

The LP and PDP are expected to escalate their grievances with the process and challenge the legitimacy of Tinubu's victory in court. But as it stands, the 70-year-old will take over from Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria's new president on May 29, 2023.

INEC will issue the president-elect and the vice-president-elect, Kashim Shettima, their certificates of return at 3 pm on Wednesday, March 1, 2023.