The outcome of Nigeria’s contentious presidential election has been determined to be a victory for Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling party.
According to the official figures, the experienced politician, who is now 70 years old, received 36 percent of the vote.
Bola Tinubu’s primary adversary, Atiku Abubakar, polled 29%, and Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, polled 25%. Their political parties had already expressed disbelief in the results of the survey and called for it to be redone.
Mr. Tinubu is one of the wealthiest politicians in Nigeria, and he ran his campaign primarily on his track record of redeveloping the country’s most populous metropolis, Lagos, when he was governor.
But in the cities, he lost to Mr. Obi, a relative newcomer who upset the country’s two-party system by getting a lot of support from young people, especially in the cities.
Mr. Tinubu was victorious in the majority of other states in the south-west area, which is his home territory and where he is renowned as a “political godfather.”
During his run for the presidency, he used the term “It’s my turn” as his campaign slogan.
After two terms in office that were marked by economic stagnation and growing insecurity around the country—ranging from an Islamist insurgency in the north-east to a nationwide crisis of kidnapping for ransom and separatist attacks in the south-east—President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to step down from his position as head of state.
In the country with the most people and the largest oil exports in Africa, Mr. Tinubu has now been given the responsibility of finding solutions to these issues and others.
Mr. Tinubu fought against the rule of the military in Nigeria, left the country and went into exile, and was one of the people who started the democracy movement in Nigeria in 1999. He would feel like he was always meant to be president because of these things.
Bola Tinubu was always the favorite to succeed Mr. Buhari, whom he helped become president, and the obstacles he has overcome to get here will make this victory much more satisfying for him. He was always the favorite.
After Tinubu’s victory, the ruling party expressed gratitude to the Nigerian people.
Yet, contrary to expectations, he was victorious in the party primary.
Many people believed that his decision to choose another Muslim as his running mate would provide a challenge, but this did not turn out to be the case.
In the past, all major parties’ presidential tickets were usually made up of a Christian from the south and a Muslim from the north. This was done to get support from as many people as possible in this huge country of 210 million people.
Now, he will have to demonstrate that he is still the strong force that constructed modern Lagos, which is Nigeria’s commercial hub, and that he can get up to speed quickly.
As the results map demonstrates, Mr. Tinubu will be assuming charge of a country that is increasingly polarized along regional and religious lines, as well as an economy that is in the process of collapsing.
