Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the results in the wee hours of Wednesday.
Tinubu was in the race along with the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
In terms of the hard figures, APC polled 8,794,726 valid votes as against the PDP’s 6,984,520 and LP’s 6,101,533.
The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) got 1,496,687 valid votes whiles the fourteen other aspirants together got the remaining 666,298.
“I now perform my responsibility as chief returning officer of the federation,” the INEC chair said.
“I, professor Mahmood Yakubu, hereby certify that I am the returning officer for the 2023 general election. The election was contested.
“That Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC, having certified the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned.”
Nigeria’s peculiar means of determining president means that the winner must get at least 25% of votes in two thirds of the 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
Tinubu had at least 25% of votes in 29 states, Atiku had 25% of votes in 21 states, Obi had 25% of votes in 16 states whiles Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP passed the threshold in only one state.
Tinubu is expected to be handed his certificate later today at the Abuja International Conference Center which INEC had used as the collation centre for the presidential elections.
