President-elect Tinubu to lead an “unpopular” government
President-elect Tinubu has received the certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He polled at least 8 million votes to clinch victory in the highly competitive race.
But the winner of the 2023 presidential election will lead a rather unpopular government. This would be the first time a president-elect would have less than 10 million votes to lead the country.
Even when Alhaji Atiku Abubakar contested in the 2019 presidential election, he garnered far more votes than the current president-elect Bola Tinubu.
The ex Lagos state governor failed to have at least 40 percent of the total valid votes cast. Atiku Abubakar has 7,032,890 valid votes while Mr. Peter Obi of the People’s Democratic Party polled 6,017,541 votes. Mr. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Political Party has 1,524,421 votes.
A combination of the three other top candidates totalled 13,202,852 votes. That’s far more than what the president-elect Tinubu got. He had 8,805,204 votes.
The new president-elect also won in 12 states. Apart from the Federal Capital Territory, there are 36 states in the federation. That means only one-third of the states backed the ambition of the APC candidate. That should be worrisome.
The implication is one out of three Nigerians opposed Bola Tinubu. Despite the fact that Muhammadu Buhari faced so much criticism, he was still able to get more than 50 percent of the ballots.
Bola Tinubu will lead an unpopular government. He will lead a country seriously divided along parallel lines. The Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria backed their “son” Peter Obi. He won all the five states in that axis.
Whereas the president-elect didn’t enjoy that support at home. That makes him “unpopular”. He lost Osun and Lagos State in the presidential election. Lagos state, where Tinubu comes from is also divided.
The Labour Party candidate Peter Obi beat the president-elect in the commercial center of the country. Then, if he can’t bring his own people in Lagos together, how does Tinubu intend to unite the country?
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