Bola Tinubu declared winner of Nigeria election

The candidate of Nigeria’s ruling party, Bola Tinubu, was announced as the president-elect of Africa’s most populous country on Wednesday after a weekend election disputed by the main opposition party.

Tinubu received 37 percent of the votes, about 8.8 million in total, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), while the main opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar won 29 percent with almost seven million. Third-placed Peter Obi took 25 percent with about 6.1 million, according to results announced on live television by INEC.

Parties now have three weeks to appeal the results, but the election can be annulled only if it is proven that the national electoral body has generally not followed the law and acted in a way that could change the result.

The Nigerian Supreme Court has never annulled a presidential election, despite public court challenges. Abubakar challenged the 2019 results after losing, but lost his appeal.

The opposition party dismissed the results as a product of a flawed process, which suffered from various technical difficulties due to the introduction of new technology by INEC, and on Tuesday called on its chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to resign.

Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress will succeed Muhammadu Buhari, who has completed two terms in office.

‘We must build together’

The president-elect thanked his supporters in the capital, Abuja, after his victory was announced and struck a tone of reconciliation in his message directed at political opponents.

“I take this opportunity to appeal to my fellow contestants to team up,” Tinubu said. “This is the only nation we have. It is one country and we must build it together.”

This is the first time since the end of the military government in 1999 that the president took office with less than 50 percent of the vote and where four candidates won over a million votes, said analysts.

Tinubu “must try to win the support of the majority who prefer one of the other candidates, especially the youth. [and] Christian groups opposed to the Muslim-Muslim ticket,” said Nnamdi Obasi, senior adviser in Nigeria for the International Crisis Group.

Nigeria’s presidential election has been closely watched as the country is not only the continent’s largest economy but also one of the continent’s top oil producers. It struggles with currency problems and inflation, as well as sectarian and Islamic violence.

From dishwashers to presidents

Tinubu, 70, is a former governor of Lagos state, originally from the Nigerian megacity of the same name. However, he lost the state in Saturday’s election to Obi, who is attracting younger voters who want change.

A biography on the campaign website says Tinubu was born in Lagos in 1952, to a Muslim family from the Yoruba ethnic group, the majority in southwestern Nigeria. Others say they are older.

In the 1970s, he moved to the United States, where he worked as a dishwasher, taxi driver and night watchman to finance his studies. He graduated from Chicago State University in 1979 with a degree in business administration.

After working for a US consulting firm, he returned to Nigeria in the 1980s and worked for a branch of the Mobil oil company as an auditor.

He first got involved in politics in the 1990s and was elected governor of Lagos when the military government ended in 1999. He served two terms.

Supporters say they have improved roads, garbage collection and other services in the chaotic city, but many Lagosians say they are still not functioning.