The candidate of the ruling party in Nigeria, the Congress of Progressives (APC), Bola Tinubu, won the presidential election on Wednesday, succeeding Muhammadu Buhari, who served two successive terms.
“Tinubu Bola Ahmed, of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is declared the winner and elected,” the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, announced to the press in Abuja.
The ruling party candidate was elected with 8.8 million votes over his two main competitors and was congratulated by outgoing President Buhari.
“I congratulate His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory. Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I will now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly transfer of power,” he said, claiming his election was “Africa’s greatest democratic exercise,” pointing to the many coups and military coups in recent years in the region.
Facing the elected president, Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), won 6.9 million votes, while Peter Obi of the Labor Party (LP), the outsider of this presidential election, popular candidate and carried by the youth was acclaimed by 6.1 million votes.
More than 87 million voters were called to the polls on Saturday, but turnout figures are not yet known.
Tinubu Bola Ahmed, 70, succeeds incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, 80, who has served two successive terms and could not run for a new candidate.
The election of this former governor of Lagos (southwest) and nicknamed “the godfather” because of his immense political influence, was not in doubt despite a tight presidential election.
To be declared the winner, it was necessary to obtain 25% of the votes in at least two thirds of the 36 States of the Federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.