New President Elected in Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu - Catholic Bishops Urge People to Remain Calm despite Objections to the Result

The former governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has won the presidential elections held in Nigeria on February 25th, 2023, according to the official results published on March 1st, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Agenzia Fides reports that the new Head of State belongs to the same party (All Progressives Congress APC) as the outgoing President, Muhammadu Buhari, despite the fact that the latter was criticized above all for not having fulfilled the promises he made in the previous electoral campaign of 2015 to restore order and security in the country and fight thoroughly against corruption. INEC announced that Tinubu, 70, has obtained 8.8 million votes, about 36.6% of the total, surpassing the vice president of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the rising star of politics Nigerian, Peter Obi, from the Labor Party.

The counting of the votes was strongly contested by the country's main opposition parties, which yesterday, February 28, stated in a joint press conference that the election results were "seriously falsified and manipulated".

The Nigerian Bishops' Conference call on the people to remain calm, law-abiding and fervent in prayers.

They also expressed doubts about the work of the Independent Electoral Commission. “Ahead of last weekend's election, both the federal government and INEC assured Nigerians that sufficient electoral reforms and preparations had been made to ensure that the sovereign will of the people was faithfully reflected in the conduct of the elections,” declared in a statement Msgr. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, Archbishop of Owerri and President of the Nigerian Bishops' Conference (CBCN).

Confident in the electoral system, the voters "went in large numbers to freely elect their next President and representatives in the Senate and in the House of the Federal Assembly".

“Unfortunately, the experience of many voters on election day did run smoothly as promised on several occasions,” underlined the Chairman of the CBCN. "In many polling stations, the human element compromised the expected benefits of the innovations of the new electoral law", adds Msgr. Iwejuru Ugorji referring to the new technologies used in voting. “In addition, the delay in the electronic transmission of the results of the voting units to the INEC results viewing portal before their announcement in the voting centers has raised suspicions among many people about the transparency of the entire process. Therefore, there is a palpable tension in the air and unrest not only from some political parties, but also in a significant part of the Nigerian population”, he concludes. Previously independent electoral observers and Caritas Nigeria (which has deployed 6,000 observers in the 36 states of the Nigerian federation), had denounced serious organizational difficulties and lack of transparency in the electoral process (see video). (L.M.) 

Edited from Agenzia Fides, 1/3/2023 - with Information from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria

Image Source: https://twitter.com/officialABAT/status/1631008267798302723/photo/1