Tinubu, the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the most votes in the disputed election.
Bola Tinubu, the politician long heralded as the “father of modern Lagos”, has won a close race to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s next president.
Tinubu, “after meeting the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and shall be re-elected,” Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced early Tuesday.
Tinubu received 8.8 million votes to defeat former ally and foe Atiku Abubakar and surprise front-runner Peter Obi, who scored 6.9 million and 6.1 million respectively, to become president hours after three opposition parties called for the cancellation of what they are a “sham” of an election.
Considered the most influential political godfather in current Nigerian history, the former two-year governor of Lagos lost his home state of Lagos to Obi, but ultimately succeeded in his bid to become Nigeria’s fifth president since the return of democracy in 1999.
His fame started in 1992 when he was elected Senator in Lagos. When the presidential elections were canceled by the military government a year later, he joined a coalition of politicians and civil society in calling for new elections.
Tinubu’s magnum opus came in 2015 when his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) merged with Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) that ousted incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
Political pundits speculated that it was only a matter of time before Tinubu made a bid to claim the presidency for himself, resulting in the slogan “Emi Lokan” (Yoruba for “it’s my turn”) that would define his campaign.
Earlier on Tuesday, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labor Party (LP) and the African Democratic Congress (CDC) had organized a press conference calling for the cancellation of the election results. allocation and not collation”.