Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has secured majority votes to become the fifth democratically elected president of Nigeria in the country’s fourth republic.
In an election that saw 93 million Nigerians register to vote, and youths enthusiasm reach a new high, Tinubu’s victory was a hard-fought one.
Marred by electoral malpractice and rejection of results, the 2023 general election was less than perfect, but Tinubu has been adjudged by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have clinched the majority votes and met the 25 percent votes requirement threshold in 30 states of the federation.
Clinching the highest office in the country often comes with widespread jubilation and merry-making from supporters of the president-elect, but there has been relative calm since the announcement of Tinubu.
For context, there was so much jubilation in northern Nigeria in 2015 when Muhammadu Buhari was announced president-elect that 50 persons died when celebrations turned chaotic.
With 8,794,726 votes, Tinubu has polled the least majority total of any president-elect since 1999. Tinubu’s votes represent less than 10 percent of the total number of registered voters and 37.7 percent of votes cast in the election that brought him.
Tinubu’s figure is not only the lowest total but also the lowest percentage of cast votes, as no other president-elect has polled less than 50 percent of votes in Nigeria’s fourth republic.
In 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), defeated Olu Falae of the All Peoples Party (APP) by 18,738,154 to 11,110,287. Obasanjo garnered 62.78 percent of votes cast.
When the 2003 election results were announced, Obasanjo’s total had jumped to 24,456,140, bettering Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), who received 12,710,022. Obasanjo won with 61.94 percent of the votes cast.
Umaru Yar’adua defeated Buhari in 2007. It was another contest between the PDP and the ANPP, with the former emerging victorious with the highest ever tally in Nigeria’s presidential election history. 24,638,063 people, representing 69.60 percent of voters, chose Yar’adua.
The PDP’s winning streak continued in 2011 against Buhari, who was with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), as Goodluck Jonathan won with 22,494,187, 58.87 percent of votes cast.
That run ended in 2015 when Buhari contested under the All Progressives Congress (APC) and polled 15,424,921 (53.96 percent) to defeat Jonathan.
He retained office in 2019 when he secured 15,191,847 (55.6 percent) of votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
The only time a candidate secured a lesser number of votes and percentage total than Tinubu was in 1979 when Shehu Shagari won the presidential election with 5,668,857 votes (33.77 percent). There were 49 million registered voters that year, and 17 million cast their ballots.
Daniel Ojukwu writes for Foundation For Investigative Journalism, https://fij.ng/article/data-tinubu-got-fewer-votes-than-any-president-elect-in-nigerias-4th-republic/
