In a seeming dissatisfaction by the Nigeria electorates over the outcome of the Saturday, February 25, 2023 Presidential election, there is relative silence nationwide.
Trumpeta Newspaper reports that following the announcement of the presidential candidate of the all Progressive Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President-elect of Nigeria, the public is believed to be uninterested.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Prof Yakubu Mahmood had on the wee hours of Wednesday declared Tinubu winner having polled the highest number of votes and certified the constitutional requirements.
According to the electoral umpire, Tinubu emerged winner having polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat the other 17 contestants.
The PDP flagbearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came second with 6,984,520 votes.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party emerged third with 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Tinubu was said to have polled over 25 percent of the votes cast in 30 states.
As at press time, INEC had presented him and his vice with the Certificate of Return.
According to statistics, Tinubu won the election in Rivers, Borno, Jigawa, Zamfara, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun states.
Atiku won in Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Gombe, Yobe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba states. He also won in Osun, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states.
Mr Obi won in Edo, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, FCT, Plateau, Imo, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Anambra, Abia and Enugu states.
Rabiu Kwankwaso won in only Kano State.
However, while the APC and its supporters celebrate their electoral victory, the PDP and the LP have called for the cancellation of the results.
The PDP and LP made their positions known at a Tuesday press conference attended by their vice-presidential candidates, Ifeanyi Okowa and Datti Baba-Ahmed, respectively.
“The election was a sham, and never free and fair,” said Mr Okowa of the PDP, a position corroborated by the LP’s vice-presidential candidate.
Their main grouse is that INEC failed to upload the results of elections in the over 170,000 polling units onto a central server (IReV) as required by law. That step should have been done before the collation and announcement of results, they said.
At the press conference, the two parties also demanded that the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, must step aside over what they described as electoral irregularities and malfeasance. INEC has since replied, saying its chairman would not resign and that any party aggrieved with the election process should follow the law to air its grievances.
Nigerians through the social media channels have expressed dismay over the conduct of the election.
Recall that throughout the campaign to election date, all support was being attributed to Mr Peter Obi and his running mate, Baba Ahmad Datti.
Obi’s wide acceptance crossed above board, especially among the youths who strongly believed he is the right man for the presidential job.
Surprisingly, he lost to Tinubu.
Even as Tinubu has been declared winner, majority of people still have the feeling something positive would happen.
Feelers have it that both Atiku and Obi May approach a Law Court to challenge the outcome of the election and its subsequent declaration.
Final Result Of The 2023 Presidential Election As Presented By The INEC Chairman At The Collation Centre On Wednesday 1st March, 2023
TOTAL REGISTERED VOTERS 93,469,008
ACCREDITED VOTERS 25,286,616
A 61,014
AA 14,542
AAC 14,608
ADC 81,919
ADP 43,924
APC 8,794,726
APGA 61,966
APM 25,961
APP 12,839
BP 16,156
LP 6,101,533
NNPP 1,496,687
NRM 24,869
PDP 6,984,520
PRP 72,144
SDP 80,267
YPP 60,600
ZLP 77,665
TOTAL VALID VOTES 24,025,940
TOTAL REJECTED VOTES: 939,278
TOTAL VOTE CAST 24,965,218
