Tinubu Receives Certificate of Return, Extends Olive Branch to Opponents

President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was this afternoon presented with a certificate of return having been declared winner of the February 25 polls around 4.30 am on Wednesday by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Speaking after receiving the certificate from INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Tinubu enjoined those that didn’t support his candidature to join hands with him in a common endeavor to pull the nation through.
At the keenly contest election, Tinubu, flag bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, polled 8,794,726 to beat Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of Labour Party, LP who polled 6,101,533 votes. Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Yakubu gave the number of registered voters for the election as 93,469,008, while only 25,286,616 voters were accredited for the election. Out of these, votes cast were 24, 965, 218, .valid votes, 24,025,940, while rejected votes were 939,278.
A breaking down of the results showed that Tinubu won in 12 states, Atiku in 12 states, and Obi in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Abuja. However, Tinubu scored the highest number of votes and got the required 25 percent in over 24 states. Both Tinubu and Abubakar got less than 25% of the votes cast in the FCT.
After declaring Tinubu as the winner, Yakubu explained that the commission would be presenting him and his vice-president-elect, Kashim Shettima, their certificates of return at the International Collation Centre in Abuja later in the day, adding that the move would allow the commission to have ample time to adequately plan for the governorship election scheduled for March 11. He however stated that senators and House of Representatives members-elect would have to wait a bit a while for their certificates of return.
Only seven party agents signed the final results declared by INEC. Labour Party, PDP and a few other parties walked out of the collation centre on Monday night and never returned.
To calm the high of discontent and protests against the conduct of the election, Yakubu promised to review the results in accordance with Section 65 of the Electoral Act within seven days. Labour Party, the PDP and the Action Democratic Party, ADC had asked Yakubu to resign for failing Nigerians’ yearning for a free and fair election.
In his acceptance speech, Tinubu affirms that he brings renewed hope: “Today, Nigeria stands tall as the giant of Africa. It shines even brighter as the continent’s biggest democracy.”
Describing his victory as divine, the former Lagos State governor said “I am grateful to Almighty God. By His mercy, I was born a son of Nigeria, and through His sublime purpose, I find myself the victor of this election. May He grant me the wisdom and courage to lead the nation to the greatness He alone has destined for it”. Promising to be a fair leader to all Nigerians, the president-elect also pledged that “I will be in tune with your aspirations, charge up your energies, and harness your talents to deliver a nation that we can be proud of.”
While extending the olive branch to other candidates, he said: “To my fellow candidates, former VP Atiku, former governor Kwankwaso, former governor Obi, and all others, I extend the hand of friendship. This was a competitive, high-spirited campaign. You have my utmost respect. Political competition must now give way to political conciliation and inclusive governance.
“During the election, you may have been my opponent, but you were never my enemy. In my heart, you are my brothers. Still, I know some candidates will be hard put to accept the election results. It is your right to seek legal recourse. What is neither right nor defensible is for anybody to resort to violence. Any challenge to the electoral outcome should be made in a court of law, and not in the streets.
“I also ask my supporters to let peace reign and tensions fade. We ran a principled, peaceful and progressive campaign. The aftermath of our campaign must be as benign. Yes, there are divisions amongst us that should not exist. Many people are uncertain, angry and hurt; I reach out to every one of you. Let the better aspects of our humanity step forward at this fateful moment. Let us begin to heal and bring calm to our nation.
“Now, to you, the young people of this country, I hear you loud and clear. I understand your pains, your yearnings for good governance, a functional economy, and a safe nation that protects you and your future”.
Rejecting the outcome of the election, Julius Abure, national chairman of LP, who spoke on behalf of the others at a media briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, 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.
“The above process, published repeatedly, announced, and agreed with INEC by all political parties was not followed, thereby leaving room for manipulation of the results after Nigerians had voted.
“The results announced by INEC so far show monumental disparities between the actual results reported by Labour Party agents, our party members, and, indeed, millions of Nigerians, on election day from the polling units. We have also listened to the arguments made by collation officers of the different political parties.
“The crux of the matter is the deliberate refusal of the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, as the National Returning Officer for the presidential election, to respond to the demand of political parties for the commission to respect the pre-existing regulations that results of this election shall be uploaded on the INEC server through the Bio-modal Voter Accreditation System technology.”
He alleged that “in cases where they tried to upload the results, INEC officials assigned to polling units could not do so. In some cases, they revealed that they had directives from their superiors to not upload the results. In some cases, they said the password for them to access the INEC server had been changed. We also recall that the initial explanation by INEC for the delay was on account of glitches on the INEC server.
“Neither did INEC explain to the nation what the nature of those glitches was nor did the commission avail the country or even agents at the polling units that it will not be uploading the results generated at the polling units to the server, when it resolves those glitches. We are, therefore, constrained on this development to state that INEC compromised the integrity of this election even before collation began at the PUs.
“We have, therefore, arrived at the conclusion that the presidential election of Saturday, February 25, 2023, conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been irretrievably compromised and we have totally lost faith in the entire process.
“The Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party shall not be part of the process currently going on at the National Collation Centre, and we demand that this sham of an election should be immediately cancelled. We also call for a fresh election to be carried out within the window allowed by the Electoral Act and in accordance with the laid down INEC procedure for the conduct of the 2023 elections.
“We similarly call on the international community to note that the results being declared at the National Collation Centre have been heavily doctored and manipulated and do not reflect the wishes of Nigerians expressed at the polls on February 25, 2023.
“We also wish to declare a vote of no confidence on the INEC chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood. By his conduct and reaction to the complaints of disenfranchised political parties, we believe that he lacks the integrity and moral standing to continue to oversee this process to a conclusion.
“We are, therefore, calling for Professor Yakubu to step aside from his role as INEC Chairman and for a credible personality from outside the commission to take his place and see this process to a conclusion that would be acceptable to all stakeholders and would restore the confidence of the international community in our democratic process and institutions.”
However, Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, said the call on Yakubu to resign was misplaced.
Oyekanmi said “The call by the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party on the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to resign is misplaced. The allegation by Dino Melaye that the INEC chairman allocated scores to parties is unfounded and irresponsible. At the same time, contrary to the insinuation by both parties, results emanating from the states point to a free, fair and credible process. There are laid down procedures for aggrieved parties or candidates to follow when they are dissatisfied about the outcome of an election. Such procedures do not include calling on the INEC chairman to resign or for the election to be cancelled.” He urged the aggrieved parties to go to court and resolve their allegations.
Amidst the rising protests against the conduct of the election, Ahmed Lawan, president of the Senate, said on Tuesday that the National Assembly did not approve electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Act.
“In the Electoral Act that we passed, there is nothing like the electronic transmission. What we have passed is to transfer after all the paper works that we normally do while the agents and everybody there have the papers. INEC will now scan or snap the result sheets and transfer them. We urge INEC to follow the Electoral Act and other laws on their guidelines.
“In this chamber, we are not going to interpret the Electoral Act. This is not a court of law. We are just to guide this debate and talk about the general principles of how this election and declaration should be done. There is no need to stress ourselves. What we are doing is to urge INEC to follow the law and the citizens should be calm.”