After days of waiting, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was officially announced as the new President of Nigeria this morning. The fact that the final result came while Nigeria was still asleep reinforces the feeling among many young people that the presidential elections held earlier this week were held in secret.
On social media, they call for resistance with hashtags like #protest and #revolutionnow. Tinubu, a member of the ruling APC party, knows tensions are high and preaches unity, but the country has never been more divided. The three main opposition parties say they will not accept the result.
Elections in Nigeria are most at stake since the end of the military dictatorship in 1999. Since then, two parties have alternately dominated the political agenda in the country of about 220 million: the current ruling party, All. Progressive Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
violent incidents
But this time there was a third party running for the presidency, Peter Obi’s Labor Party. Young people gathered at the back of the party en masse. For the first time there was hope for real change, and the power of the old elite came to an end. The population in Nigeria is very young: 70 percent under thirty.
Obi presented himself as frugal, hostile to the system, and in his sixties, much younger than his main rivals in his seventies. In the election, Obi came third with 6.1 million votes, not far behind the PDP’s sixth presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Doubts about the final result have increased in recent days because the results took a long time to arrive. The elections held last Saturday were extended until Sunday due to logistical problems and violence in some places.
invoice
The election commission promised in advance that the results would be available quickly and transparently. The final results will be photographed at the polls and uploaded to the Election Commission’s server. So everyone could watch. A few days’ delay left opposition parties feeling that the ruling party was cheating in the elections.
Opposition parties have already called today’s election a sham and called for a new one. But everything went well, according to the election commission, and if the opposition has objections, it must go to court.
fingers in the game
This will be difficult. Tinubu had good cards. It was difficult for the opposition to compete with the old elite. “It’s my turn” was his motto. The accountant was a former governor of Lagos and has long had a big finger in politics. It also has a well-oiled and well-funded political machine.
While many young people supported Obi in cities and on social media, he was much less visible in other parts of the country. It was Tinubu. The high turnout of many young voters was also important to Obi. This seems to fail.
Obi supporters want evidence of fraud collected, including photographing results at polling stations and comparing them to Election Commission results.
Chaotic Country
In any case, the presidential elections caused a delay. In key places like Lagos, Obi won a majority. So Tinubu was once the governor of this mega city. Hoping there’s a lot of support out there.
The task of the new president is difficult. Under Bukhari, Tinubu’s predecessor, also from the APC party, Nigeria has advanced further in recent years. Both in terms of economy and security due to jihadist violence and attacks by criminal gangs. Also, Tinubu has to stand behind young people who think he is old and corrupt.
These young people now have to move on with little work in a chaotic country. While some of Obi’s supporters have called for resistance, others say he is keeping his cool and wants to expand his movement to win the next presidential election.
Recent elections may only leave more young people frustrated with the feeling that they are being denied a fair chance.
Source: NOS
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
