United States of America has congratulated the people of Nigeria, President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and all the nation’s political leaders following the declaration by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the results of the February 25 presidential election.
A statement released today by the State Department spokesperson, Ned Price said “This competitive election represents a new period for Nigerian politics and democracy. Each of the top three candidates was the leading vote-getter in 12 states, a remarkable first in Nigeria’s modern political era, reflecting the diversity of views that characterized the campaign and the wishes of Nigeria’s voters.”
He acknowledged that many Nigerians and some of the political parties have expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted and the shortcomings of technical elements that were used for the first time in a presidential election cycle.
He stated that Nigerians are clearly within their rights to have such concerns and should have high expectations for their electoral processes, adding: “We join other international observers in urging INEC to improve in the areas that need the most attention ahead of the March 11 gubernatorial elections.”
Price called on all parties, candidates, and supporters to refrain from violence or inflammatory rhetoric at this critical time and that such aggrieved parties should take advantage of well-established mechanisms in place for the adjudication of electoral disputes
“We encourage any candidate or party seeking to challenge the outcome to pursue redress through those mechanisms.”
He commended the active participation of civil society and the media for advancing electoral norms and political discourse on issues of importance to citizens.
Price, who said the United States was concerned about reports that numerous members of the media were attacked during the course of the election, urged the Nigeria government, security forces, political actors, and all citizens to respect the media’s critical role.
This, he said should be done by refraining from any damaging acts against them and ensuring accountability for such acts when they do occur.
“We also congratulate the Nigerian people, especially the large number of youths who are relatively new to the political process, for demonstrating their strong commitment to democracy.”
It would be recalled that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu winner of the 2023 presidential election in the early hours of Wednesday, Nigerian time.
The declaration was made at the National Collation Centre, Abuja, after he said Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates, thus meeting the first constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.
According to Yakubu, Tinubu also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 25 states constitutionally required, saying that Atiku Abubakar of the PDP came second in the election having polled a total of 6,984,520 votes.
Atiku was followed by Peter Obi of the Labour Party who came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Only the top four candidates won the presidential election in at least one state. Tinubu, Atiku and Obi each won in 12 states while Mr. Kwankwaso won only in Kano.
The election was marred by irregularities, including alleged massive rigging, voter suppression, late arrival of personnel/voting materials and malfunctioning of INEC BVAS machines, ballot box/BVAS machines snatching, destruction of ballot papers, violence and killings.
