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Bola Tinubu Elected to Be Nigeria’s Next President


In the run-up to the presidential election in Nigeria on Saturday, the ruling party candidate’s most famous slogan was “Emi lo kan,” a phrase in the Yoruba language that means “My turn.” .”

By Wednesday morning, it was finally his turn. Bola Tinubu, former state governor and one of the most powerful political legislators in Nigeria, is declare the West African nation’s next president by election officials in the capital at around 4 a.m., after The tightest fighting competition in years.

While opposition parties dismissed the election as a “sham”, allegations of fraud and violence spread and vowed to challenge the results in court, many Nigerians are trying to accept the four-year prospect. under one of the country’s most controversial figures.

Seen by many as corrupt, ill-healthy and a staunch defender, Mr Tinubu may struggle to unite a country with a huge young population – especially those attached to social media. – people I’m trying more and more to make myself listenand fight against old ways of management.

But in Mr Tinubu, many others see a pair of talented hands with a wealth of experience who turned Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, when he served as governor of Lagos state, from 1999 to 2007.

A country rich in nature, bursting with talent – with huge tech, music and film industries – Nigeria is also a country where more than 60 percent people live in poverty, millions of children suffer from leave schooland where? kidnap is a daily risk to Nigerians from all walks of life.

Mr. Tinubu, a millionaire, says he makes his money from real estate. But he has faced questions about the origins of his wealth. The US government took $460,000 from a bank account in his name in 1993, saying the money was likely proceeds from the drug trade. He has denied any wrongdoing.

He is a man with many nicknames, both reverent and irreverent. The person his supporters most often scolded him for was “Jagaban”: meaning “big boss” or “boss of bosses”, it represented the power he wielded and as a result he often be treated with respect.

But recently, many Nigerians have called Mr Tinubu “Balablu” – a reference to a speech he made. tried and failed to say the word “hullabaloo” – and a shorthand to imply that he is too old and sometimes not coherent enough to take on the role of leading Africa’s largest economy and one of the most diverse nations , its most complex. Mr Tinubu says he is 70 years old, but some Nigerians think he is much older.

Nigerians have reason to worry about this. Their current president, Muhammadu Buhari – an 80-year-old who ruled the country as a military dictator in the 1980s and returned as a democrat in 2015 – has spend most of the time at the office getting treatment in London because of an illness he has not disclosed.

Many Nigerians did not stop to celebrate or protest Mr Tinubu’s victory on Wednesday morning, as they focused on surviving the cash crunch, the most recent economic shock to which his government Buhari threw at them.

Outside an ATM in Lagos – Nigeria’s largest city – hours after the election results were announced, James Adah, a 38-year-old network engineer, said he waited for a withdrawal for five hours. The currency redesign implemented just before the election created a severe shortage of new bills, leaving millions of Nigerians unable to pay for basic necessitieseven though they have money in the bank.

The quiet mood in Lagos reflects the general resignation of many Nigerians, Mr. Adah said.

“If people are happy, you will find joy,” he said. “But they are only moving forward amid the perception that the election may not be free and fair.”

Mr. Tinubu won about 8.8 million VND votesaccording to results released by the Independent National Election Commission in the early hours of the morning, followed by Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s longtime opposition candidate, with around 7 million.

Not far behind, with 6.1 million, is Peter Obi, who six months ago was not seen as a strong candidate in Nigeria’s traditional two-party race, but succeeded in building a campaign. formidable which largely grew out of a youth movement founded in protest. government abuses and injustices.

Opposition parties of Mr Obi and Mr Abubakar, as well as a smaller party, rejected Tuesday’s election results, calling for their cancellation and reorganization because they said, There was widespread election fraud.

Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obi’s running mate, said: “We won the election as the Labor Party, we will do our duty. “We will rescue Nigeria.”

According to Tunde Ajileye, a partner at SBM Intelligence, a Nigerian risk consulting firm, questions about whether Mr Tinubu fraudulently achieved the presidency meant he would face with the question of legitimacy.

“Whatever tough decisions he has to make – there are always people waiting to prove that those decisions are detrimental, even when they may be the right ones,” he said. “And tough decisions need to be made for Nigeria’s economy.”

Tinubu has promised to eliminate expensive fuel subsidies, but must also find a way to deal with government debt and foreign exchange restrictions, Mr. Ajileye said.

Mr. Tinubu is considered by many to be more likely manage Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy more than Mr. Buhari, whose tenure has endured two recessions.

“He has a track record as governor so he needs to expand nationally,” Akeem Salau, a minibus driver, said of Tinubu Wednesday in Lagos. “Education and infrastructure should be his priorities.”

Mr Tinubu will also face growing and mushrooming security crises in Nigeria, including kidnappings, violent extremist groups such as Boko Haram in the northeast and separatists in the north. southeast.

Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst for West Africa at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, said he would have to work hard to win the trust of the southeastern and largely religious population. Christians of the Igbo ethnic group live there.

Most of the southeastern states voted overwhelmingly for Mr Obi, who is from the region and is Christian, and against Mr. Tinubu, a southwest Muslim who chose another Muslim. run your own campaign. The ticket goes against Nigeria’s political tradition, where a Muslim and a Christian often run together.

In Lagos on Wednesday afternoon, traffic poured through the Lekki toll station, where young people protested against police brutality. shot down by security forces in 2020. A billboard there now says: “Vote in peace, end electoral violence.” The Nigerian army was accused by witnesses of killing unarmed protesters that day, but there was no justice for those victims, according to Amnesty International.

Teniola Tayo, a policy analyst based in Abuja, says she hopes Jagaban – the “boss of bosses” – will hold the Nigerians accountable.

“I hope that he will consider Nigerians as his new jagabans, as he said in his acceptance speech that he is here to serve,” she said.

Indeed, Mr. Tinubu took on a more conciliatory tone than usual when addressing the nation early Wednesday morning, reaching out to Nigerians who did not vote for him and telling young people: “I hear you well.”

Oladeinde Olawoyin contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.

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