Photo by Salem Ochidi on Unsplash
Following days of tumultuous vote-counting, Nigeria finally has a new leader. The All People’s Congress (APC) candidate Mr. Bola Tinubu emerged victorious with 8.8 million votes. The past few days have been filled with much controversy in Nigeria, with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party claiming a lack of transparency with the voting system. They also claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) had colluded with the All People’s Congress (APC). As such, a lot of issues have arisen in the determination of Nigeria’s next leader. Some of these issues have contributed to the rise of Bola Tinubu. In this article, I hope to discuss the reasons for Bola Tinubu’s rise to presidency. Some of the controversy and lack of transparency in the elections did contribute to his rise. However, Tinubu’s own ability and brilliance did play a role as well.
First, members of the opposition have notably mentioned that the controversy and lack of transparency in the elections contributed to Tinubu’s rise. Many expected a more free and fair election this year in Nigeria, especially with the introduction of new technology in voting. The introduction of the electronic voting system (Bvas) has caused a lot of issues, owing to the fact that there was a lack of internet in some places in Nigeria, leading to difficulties in the uploading of results. Also, some members of the opposition claimed that many of the polling centers who opened late were polling centers in opposition strongfronts. Simultaneously, the opposition had claimed that vote counts uploaded from the polling centers had a certain level of irregularity and they believed political pressure from the incumbent APC forced INEC to falsify results. Apparently, results from nearly 177,000 polling stations were not uploaded, which might have seriously impacted the results of the election. Unfortunately, one may never know whether these results are credible or not, and whether the investigation on the results is credible or not. As such, the lack of transparency in the elections might have contributed to Tinubu’s victory.
Second, Tinubu’s experience and ability certainly played a role in his victory in the elections. Bola Tinubu has been termed the “jagaban” or the warrior of warriors, persevering despite being exiled by previous Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. He served as governor of Nigeria's capital, Lagos, from 1999 to 2007, showing his expertise in being a leader in Nigeria. Lagos developed well under Tinubu, with Lagos becoming one of the richest states, with its economy growing to be bigger than several African countries. Lagos also underwent great social progress, with improved access to water, improved housing and transportation. Tinubu introduced the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, which made bus transport safer, cheaper and faster. Simultaneously, it brought a lot of jobs to Nigerians. Tinubu himself had also been termed as the king of the long game, because of his ability to strategize. His rise to power was not a process of luck, but a process that he had carefully planned. When he was the governor of Lagos, he had used his clout and resources to gain influence in Nigeria, starting with the southwest. His influence is evident in how he has handpicked every governor in Lagos since he left office and how he had been key in ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s ascension to the presidency. Hence, Tinubu’s own ability and experience was a factor in his success in this election.
In conclusion, Tinubu’s victory in the presidential elections was mostly due to two main factors. The first factor is the controversy in the election results and the second being Tinubu’s own ability that swayed voters to vote for him. Unfortunately, we might never know which factor was the most decisive. Nonetheless, Tinubu’s victory is a key moment in Nigeria’s history and now we can only wait and see how Tinubu will benefit Nigeria.
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