The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, has been declared the president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, was declared president-elect after receiving 8,794,726 votes in the 2023 presidential election.
Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of INEC, announced Tinubu as the winner in the early hours of Wednesday at the International Collation Centre in Abuja.
Tinubu defeated other candidates, including the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar, the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s Rabiu Kwankwaso.
The three leading presidential candidates each won 12 states, while Kwankwaso won only Kano.
Tinubu defeated Atiku, a former vice president and his closest rival, with 1.8 million votes.
According to the Blinkscoop, Tinubu will run for President of the United States for the first time in 2023. The former senator left office as a two-term governor of Lagos State in 2007 and is credited with leading the coalition that ousted the PDP from power in 2015. In recent years, he has expanded his influence beyond the South-West region.
Aside from Tinubu; Obi; Atiku, and Kwankwaso, other candidates that gunned for the nation’s oval office include Dumebi Kachikwu of the African Democratic Congress; Kola Abiola, People’s Redemption Party; Omoyele Sowore, Africa Action Congress; Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party; Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Young Progressive Party; Prof Christopher Imumulen, Accord Party; Prof Peter Umeadi, All Progressives Grand Alliance; and Yusuf Mamman Dan Talle, Allied Peoples Movement.
Hamza Al-Mustapha of the Action Alliance, Sani Yusuf of the Action Democratic Party, Nnnadi Osita of the Action Peoples Party, Oluwafemi Adenuga of the Boot Party, Osakwe Felix Johnson of the National Rescue Movement, and Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu of the Zenith Labour Party are also on the list.
Tinubu received 252,282 votes across 27 local government areas in Borno, according to a tally of votes announced by electoral officials from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, and was declared the winner by the state Collation Officer, Prof. Jude Rabo.
Atiku and Obi received only 190,921 and 7,205 votes, respectively, while Kwankwaso received 4,626 votes.
Tinubu received 231,591 votes from 23 LGAs in Rivers State, while the LP received 175, 071 votes and the PDP received 88, 468 votes.
The Federal Capital Territory, on the other hand, proved to be a game changer for the Labour Party, taking both Tinubu and his PDP counterpart by surprise.
Obi’s popularity in Abuja earned him 281,717 votes, while the former Lagos governor and former Vice President received 90,902 and 74,149 votes, respectively. Kwankwaso received 4,517 votes as well.
Tinubu, on the other hand, made up for his losses in northern and middle belt states such as Zamfara, Kwara, Kogi, Benue, and Kogi.
In Benue, the APC received 310,468 votes, relegating the LP (308,372), the PDP (130,081), and the NNPP (4,740) to second, third, and fourth place, respectively.
In Zamfara State, he received 298,396 votes to the LP’s 1,660 votes, the NNPP’s 4,044 votes, and the PDP’s 193,978 votes.
Obi easily defeated other candidates in Plateau, where he received 466,272 votes to the APC’s 307,195, the PDP’s 243,808, and the NNPP’s 8,869 votes.
Tinubu has won Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Kwara, Ekiti, Kogi, Benue, Zamfara, and Jigawa so far, while Atiku has won Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi, Bayelsa, Adamawa, and Akwa Ibom.
Obi, on the other hand, has won the states of Lagos, Enugu, Cross River, Nasarawa, Imo, Anambra, Abia, Delta, and Plateau, as well as the FCT.
In the end, the APC received 8,794,726 votes, the PDP received 6,984,520 votes, the LP received 6,101,533 votes, and the NNPP received 1,496,687 votes.
The INEC chairman declared Tinubu the winner, saying, “Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and returned elected.”