Presidential poll: Winners and losers

 

The February 25 Presidential election was no doubt a keenly contested one as it sprung up surprises.

With the election over and the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the winners are in a joyful mood while the losers are licking their wounds.

Interestingly and surprisingly, some candidates, who were seen as lesser threats, made inroads into the strongholds of their opponents.

WINNERS

 BOLA TINUBU

The President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the biggest winner. He weathered all storms to defeat friends and foes during the presidential primary of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

He went as far as building bridges across the country in an attempt to secure his party’s ticket and in the end, he emerged victorious.

During the campaigns, he was reported to have made some gaffes, which the opponents used against him but that did not deter him from passing his message of renowned hope to Nigerians.

Despite efforts to allegedly use the naira redesign policy to thwart his “lifelong ambition”, the Jagaban Borgu was unperturbed.

He deployed all in his arsenal to win the presidential contest.

According to him, “I must discuss myself. I have the confidence, the vision, and the capacity to rule, build on the foundation of Mr. President, and make Nigeria better.”

 PETER OBI

His impressive performance in Lagos, the South-South, South-East and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has sent fears to the spine of his opponents.

He came as a hurricane and swept some states which left some of his opponents, who had underrated him, sulking.

The entrance of the Labour Party’s Presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi into the race, gave hope to many candidates as they rode on his back to victory.

Though Obi came third in the Presidential contest, he is considered a major winner of the February 25 election because of the huge impact his aspiration has made in the polity especially among the youths.

 Labour Party

Before Peter Obi’s entry, the Labour Party was not considered a threat.

Obi’s movement into the party resurrected it and during the polls, LP swept across the South East, and South-South like a tsunami and made incursions into Lagos, considered as Tinubu’s stronghold.

Many of the candidates, who contested on the Labour Party platform, especially for the Senate and House of Representatives, defeated the likes of Ndudi Elumelu and Sam Egwu.

 Nyesom Wike

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State had been at loggerheads with the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar over his call for the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu.

The feud led to the formation of the G-5 governors, who insisted on Ayu’s resignation.

Amid the feud, Wike subtly went into alliance with Tinubu to deliver Rivers State votes for the APC. 

The APC candidate scored the highest votes in Rivers State courtesy of Wike.

LOSERS

ATIKU ABUBAKAR

Presidential candidate of the PDP,  Atiku Abubakar could not coast home to victory following the infighting within his party.

This will be the fourth time Atiku will be vying for the presidency and failed at every attempt.

The G-5 governors, led by Wike, refused to throw their weight behind the former Vice President due to his refusal to back removal of Ayu.

Unfortunately, Atiku and the PDP went into the contest as a divided house as some of the PDP governors worked against him in their respective states.

Asides from Wike, Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu and other PDP leaders like Bode George, Donald Duke, Olusegun Mimiko, Jonah Jang worked against Atiku’s chances at the poll.

PDP

As the saying goes, a divided house cannot stand. 

It is noteworthy that the Peoples Democratic Party contested the presidential election as a divided house. 

Unfortunately, the party had split into four before the election.

It had the mainstream PDP, the G-5, part of the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, led by Rabiu Kwankwawo. 

Unable to put its house in order, the party went down together.

The rest they say is history.

 

Olusegun Obasanjo

In his 2023 New Year message, former President Olusegun Obasanjo endorsed the LP presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi as his preferred candidate.

While endorsing Obi, the former President described the former Anambra governor as his mentee, who has an edge in the presidential elections.

According to him, “None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline, and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job, particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge.”

Unfortunately, his anointed candidate could not scale through in the contest as he emerged third.

During the collation of the presidential election results, Obasanjo had written to President Muhammadu Buhari over alleged moves to alter the result of the polls.

But he was rebuffed by the Federal Government and some eminent Nigerians who accused the former president of trying to scuttle the electoral process.

 INEC

A large majority of Nigerians have expressed anger over the disappointing manner the INEC conducted the Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25.

Nigerians particularly directed their anger at the National Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu over the failure of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, to transmit election results from the polling units to the commission’s server.

The electorate and observers have decried the abysmal performance of the electoral umpire during the election.

Culled from Vanguard