Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential looks set to be announced as the president-elect barring any last minute cancellation of votes in Nigeria.
Tinubu leads the polls with 8,805,655 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar finished second with 6,984,520.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party placed third with 6,098,588 while Rabiu Kwankwaso is placed fourth with 1,496,687 after all results from the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory was announced on Tuesday.
The remaining 14 presidential candidates: Christopher Imumolen of Accord Party; Hamza Al-Mustapha of Action Alliance; Yabagi Sani of Action Democratic Party; Osita Nnadi of Action Peoples Party; Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress; Dumebi Kachikwu of African Democratic Congress; Peter Umeadi of All Progressives Grand Alliance;
Princess Chichi Ojei of Allied Peoples Movement; Sunday Adenuga of Boot Party; Felix Johnson Osakwe of Nigerian Rescue Movement; Kola Abiola of Peoples Redemption Party; Adewole Adebayo of Social Democratic Party; Malik Ado-Ibrahim of Young Peoples Party and Dan Nwanyanwu of Zenith Labour Party all polled 666,298 votes.
Barring any cancellation or recount of votes across Nigeria, Tinubu, a two-term Lagos governor is expected to be declared winner of the polls by Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Disputed polls and rigging allegations
INEC has come under some scrutiny for its handling of the presidential and national assembly polls conducted on February 25.
The electoral body introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) before the elections, stating that it was deployed to help in accreditation of voters but things turned out differently at many of the 176,846 polling units across the country.
Many voters were unable to exercise their civic duties because of technical problems with BVAS.
Asides from the BVAS, INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) failed to transmit results from polling units to the INEC servers. On the day of the election, many INEC staff resulted to manual transmission of results which some political parties believe have influenced the election result in favour of the ruling APC.
“The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, State elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations,” Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee said on February 26, 2023.
Adding that, “Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.
“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.
“We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal. These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
The statement by INEC did very little to douse the fear that the electoral umpire is complicit in the failings recorded especially because it had test-run the BVAS during the governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti states.
Calls for cancellation of results
The three leading opposition parties, the PDP, LP and NNPP have called for cancelation of votes following irregularities recorded across the country.
Led by the vice-presidential candidate of PDP and Labour, Ifeanyi Okowa and Datti Baba-Ahmed on February 28 they demanded that INEC cancel the presidential elections.
At a joint press conference at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, they said, “We monitored with dismay the travesty to democracy that was exhibited at the National Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). It is, to say the least, a rape of democracy,” the parties said.
“The conduct of the February 25, 2023 election has been marred by widespread violence, rigging, intimidation of voters, doctoring of the results, and violation of the laid down electoral process which was communicated by the national electoral body, INEC.
“INEC had announced a process which would require the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation and voting and that all election results would be electronically transmitted from polling units to INEC servers.
Obasanjo adds his voice to growing concerns
Former Nigeria president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has added his voice to the growing concerns about the presidential election.
The former military head of state in an open letter said that, “It is no secret that INEC officials, at operational level, have been allegedly compromised to make what should have worked not to work and to revert to manual transmission of results which is manipulated and the results doctored.
“The Chairman of INEC may claim ignorance but he cannot fold his hands and do nothing when he knows that the election process has been corrupted and most of the results that are brought outside BVAS and Server are not true reflection of the will of Nigerians who have made their individual choice. At this stage, we do not need wittingly or unwittingly to set this country on fire with the greed, irresponsibility and unpatriotic acts of those who allegedly gave money to INEC officials for perversion and those who collected the blood money.
“Let me appeal to the Chairman of INEC, if his hands are clean, to save Nigeria from the looming danger and disaster which is just waiting to happen.
“If the Chairman can postpone elections four days to the election, he can do everything to rectify the errors of the last two days: no BVAS, no result to be acceptable; and no upload through server, no result to be acceptable,” Obasanjo said.
Tinubu, APC kick back, head to court
Tinubu and the APC kicked off a legal struggle on February 28 to stop opposition parties from stopping the collation of Saturday’s presidential election results.
The APC also sought to prevent the Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party from consistently announcing and compiling poll results.
In addition to Kashim Shettima, the APC’s vice presidential candidate, being designated as a plaintiff, the Action Alliance and the Independent National Electoral Commission were added as defendants.
The suit was filed before the Federal High Court in Kano and was marked FHC/KN/CS/43/2023.
