Nigeria's president-elect, Bola Tinubu, has called on the opposition to join hands with him to build a better nigeria. The opposition is contesting his win in an election they call a sham.
"I ask that you not allow the disappointment of this moment to keep you from realizing the historic national progress we can make by joining hands and hearts in common endeavour to pull this nation through," said Tinubu, a Muslim from the southern Yoruba community.
Bola Tinubu was declared the winner in the heavily contested elections after getting 8.8 million votes cast. His competitor, Atiku Abubakar, came in second after getting 6.9 million votes, while the new player on the scene, Peter Obi, managed to get 6.1 million votes. This was the sixth time atiku was contesting for the country's top seat.
Tinubu was declared president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after receiving the required votes from two-thirds of Nigeria's states.
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Peter Obi's running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, opposed the results, saying that The given results by INEC did not meet the criteria of a transparent, free and fair election.
"We will go to court," he said while urging supporters to "remain peaceful and calm". He added
if the opposition wants to proceed with the court case, they have 21 days to file their petition and present evidence to the courts.
The elections were mostly peaceful, apart from a few delays when uploading results to the system, a delay the opposition claimed was used to manipulate the results. This was Nigeria's most contested election since the country transitioned from military rule in the late 1990s.
Many have criticized Tinubu's win, especially his association with the outgoing president Buhari who they say has failed to revive africas biggest economy, and cases of insecurity in the country have reached an all-time high.
The country's voter turnout was at an all-time low. Nigeria has over 90 million voters, but less than 25 million showed up to vote.
