Nigeria's progressive congress presidential candidate, Bola tinubu, has taken an early lead in Nigeria's most anticipated presidential elections since the shift from military rule.

PHOTO | COURTESY Bola Tinubu

The former governor of Lagos faced fierce competition from Atiku Abubakar of the people's democratic party (PDP), who is the leader of the opposition. However, Peter obi of the labour party is giving the two popular candidates a run for their money in the elections.

Peter obi defeated bola tinubu in his hometown of Lagos state after getting 582,454 votes, just ahead of 572,606 for former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu for the governing All Progressives Congress party. Lagos state has the highest number of registered voters in the country.

Figures provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) show that bola tinubu is leading with 3.8 million votes from 14 stations out of the 36, Abubakar had 3 million and Obi 1.6 million. Peter Obi won three in three states, Tinubu won six states and Abubakar five states.

For one to be declared the winner, the candidate must receive the most votes and 25% of the votes cast in two-thirds of Nigeria's states. This measure reflects a country divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south and three major ethnic groups.

the voting process was mostly peaceful apart from a few areas where gangs tried to disrupt the counting process in some polling stations,  Delays slowed the uploading of results to the official website INEC meant to promote transparency. Presidential votes are tallied at the polling stations and then uploaded to the site for verification.

PHOTO | COURTESY Peter Obi

Delays have fueled accusations of manipulations as claimed by the opposition party agents who walked out of a counting centre in Abuja

"We are not here to rubber stamp the electoral fraud that has been prepared by INEC and APC," PDP official Dino Melaye said. "We are saying that INEC is compromised."

Buhari steps down after serving his two terms in office, critics, however, say that he has failed the country, and now it is up to his successor to devise Africa's biggest economy.