President Muhammadu Buhari has won the 2019 presidential election polling 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest challenger and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Mr Abubakar, who served as vice president between 1999 and 2007, polled 11,262,978 votes to finish as runner-up.
Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Mr Buhari the winner of the election and returned him as duly elected.
“I, Professor Mahmood Yakubu hereby certify that I was the returning officer for the election held on the 23rd of February, 2019.
“That Muhammadu Buhari having satisfied the requirements of the law, having scored the highest number of votes is hereby returned elected.”
Mr Yakubu said the Certificate of Return would be issued to the winners later today, at 2 p.m.
It was a hard-fought victory for Mr Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), after a rigorous political campaign that saw the 76-year old retired army general traverse the 36 state capitals as he sought a much-needed re-election.
Before the announcement of the final results, the PDP had rejected the outcome saying the election was marred by disenfranchisement and manipulation of figures.
The party went ahead to urge the INEC to discontinue the announcement of the presidential election results.
But the ruling party described the opposition party’s reaction as “antics” to stop the INEC from completing this electoral process.
There were, indeed, election violence in several parts of the country with injuries and fatalities recorded in Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Kogi, Zamfara, Anambra, Ogun, among other states.
At least, 47 people died from election-related violence recorded across more than eight states in the country, according to the Situation Room, a coalition of more than 70 civil society groups.
But the violence notwithstanding, Mr Buhari was able to win in 19 states, securing the statutorily required 25 percent of votes cast in 24 or more of the 36 states. He won in Kaduna, Jigawa, Niger, Yobe, Gombe, Kogi, Nasarawa, Kwara, Osun, Ekiti, Bauchi, Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Katsina, Borno, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara states.
Mr Abubakar prevailed 17 states and the FCT. The opposition candidate won in Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Ondo, Adamawa, Taraba, Oyo, Edo, Benue, Imo, Plateau, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and the FCT.
There were 73 presidential candidates on the ballot in an election marred by low voter turnout (35.7 percent; less than the 44 percent recorded in 2015), but the contest was between Mr Buhari and Mr Abubakar. For the latter, and at 72, it will probably be his last shot at the presidency after previous unsuccessful attempts.
But it will be another opportunity for the president to redeem his badly battered persona as a no-nonsense anti-corruption champion as well as position the economy on a sound fiscal footing. Several corruption trials against politically-exposed persons have stalled in courts across the country and Mr Buhari continued to be accused of shielding some of his inner circle who are allegedly corrupt from prosecution.
The two front-runners are also northerners and Muslims. While Mr Buhari is from the northwestern state of Katsina, Mr Abubakar hails from Adamawa in the northeast.
Ahead of the polls, Mr Abubakar’s strategists predicted a solid outing for their principal, especially in the northwest and northeast – where Mr Buhari traditionally garnered nearly all his votes in the three previous attempts before his eventual victory in 2015 – and then make a clean sweep of most of the southern states to bolster his numbers.
But at the end of voting, Mr Buhari won in all the states in the northeast and northwest with the exception of Adamawa and Taraba states.
Mr Buhari’s victory makes it the second time, since 1999, that an incumbent will be re-elected, after former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s successful attempt in 2003.
In 2015, the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, failed in his re-election bid after he was defeated by Mr Buhari.
Earlier, before the final declaration by Mr Yakubu, Osita Chidoka, the spokesperson for Mr Atiku’s campaign, said it was curious that up to five million votes were recorded from areas where the card readers had malfunctioned.
He urged Mr Yakubu not to declare a winner in the election.
But the INEC boss said the Electoral Act only called for the voiding of such votes in situations where the card readers were deliberately sabotaged, adding that votes arising from such cases do not tally with Mr Chidoka’s figures.
Nigeria has had its elections for president and were won by Muhammadu Buhari with a total of 15,191,847 votes, 56 percent of the total polls. Against Atiku Abubakar, vice president of the country from 1999-2007, Buhari defeated him and other competitor Goodluck Jonathan by almost four million votes according to the Independent Electoral Commision. From his massive number of votes, some parties have said that the votes were cheated, like Abubakar, and he shouldn’t have actually won and beat the past vice president. Abubakar rejected the results of the poll that the results were militarized and showed as a disservice to Nigeria’s democracy. He continued to say that if he lost in a fair election, he would have called the victor to give his congratulations and to be a service help Nigeria by being the bridge between north and south. He then added that in a sham election like the one that he just lost in, he rejected the results and will be challenging the results in court. Abubakar had been vice president for some time and has run for president four times and has lost them all because of allegations involving corruption from his time in office, allegations he denies happening. Although Bahuri won 19 of the 36 states and Abubakar won only 17, Abubakar took the upper hand winning the capital of Nigeria. But at some places for voting, there were forms of voter intimidation including stolen ballot boxes and poll sheets being burned just before opening. From the widespread voting apathy, Nigeria had the lowest voter turnout in 20 years with only 27 million votes of the 84 million who are registered to vote. From the election, civil violence has also occurred due to the amount of disagreement between areas in Nigeria. According to allafrica.com, a total of at least 47 people died from the violence according to the Situation Room, a coalition of 70 civil organizations that monitored the votings. A volunteer at one voting location was killed because of being caught in a crossfire between the Nigerian army and armed militias in the Rivers state.