Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) the winner of the 2023 presidential election. Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 6,984,520 to emerge second.
Nearly 90 million people were eligible to vote in Africa’s largest democracy, with many Nigerians hoping a new leader will do a better job tackling insecurity, economic malaise and growing poverty.
Elections were held nationwide on February 25. Voting had to be extended into Sunday in a few parts of the country after some glitches.
State-by-state results from the INEC are provided below:
Who is Bola Tinubu?
A two-term governor of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, Bola Tinubu is credited with raising the state’s revenue and supporters say he will replicate his success on the national stage.
He has courted controversy by doing what was considered unthinkable for more than three decades – selecting Kashim Shettima, the ex-governor of Borno, as his running mate. Tinubu and Shettima are both Muslims, from the southwest and northeast, respectively.
There is a gentlemanly agreement between the main parties to share power between north and south, and Christians and Muslims.
Ahead of Saturday’s vote, however, Tinubu and Shettima argued that competency overrules religion.
Ideology barometer
In parts of Africa, personality-driven politics and patronage culture are still dominant, so ideology politics is not as entrenched on the continent as it was under military regimes.
Political actors are frequently crossing party divides and changing their stance on national issues, depending on the stage of their career and other variables in an electoral cycle.
Below is an approximate representation of the leading candidates’ ideological standing – economically and culturally.
