Despite legal challenges to the election results, Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu’s Swearing in will go ahead on May 29, according to the nation’s information minister. Lai Mohammed claimed there was no basis for an interim administration to be established until the legal challenges could be settled during a visit to the UK to refute allegations that the election on February 25 in Africa’s most populous nation had been manipulated.
Like Bola Tinubu, who is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress party (APC), Lai Mohammed asserted that those who supported the unsuccessful Labour presidential candidate Peter Obi were weakening democracy by demanding a new election.
The lowest voter turnout in democratic Nigerian history, 29%, was used to determine Tinubu’s victory. Obi, who ranked third, and the opposition People’s Democratic party (PDP), led by Atiku Abubakar, are both contesting the results in court. However, the APC is requesting that the Obi’s challenge be rejected by the courts due to a number of technicalities.
To stop the swearing in, famous Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie urged Joe Biden to reconsider endorsing the results in an open letter she wrote to him this week. The author alleged that deliberate manipulation had put the poll in jeopardy and that the electoral commission ignored so many glaring red flags in its rush to announce a winner.
Court Cases Ahead of Tinubu’s Swearing in
Legal challenges to election results are not uncommon in Nigeria, but Obi’s campaign, which appealed to young voters, alleges that the electoral commission failed to upload the results in real time as promised. They claim that the delay in releasing the results may have given the ruling party’s election commission officials cover to alter the outcome. After been submitted in March, the Obi petition to the electoral tribunal must be decided within 180 days, after which there may be additional appeals to higher courts.
The opposition has a right to challenge the results in court, but they do not have a right to call for insurrection, according to Mohammed. They do not have the authority to assert that the end of democracy will result from their defeat and Tinubu’s Swearing in.
Referring to Obi’s running mate, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed, he said: “If the running mate of a presidential candidate says if you swear in a validly elected candidate as president that would be the end of democracy, that is treason pure and simple. As a lawyer I know it is a treasonable felony to call for the end of democracy.”
He claimed that despite the fact that these comments endangered national security, Obi had never denied making them. “Democracy surviving in Nigeria is very important for democracy in Africa,” he continued.
Tinubu’s Swearing in plans are widely being questioned. The communications minister rejected that the next president’s legitimacy will be weakened by low turnout and controversies surrounding the election results as he gets ready to enact challenging economic changes, which may include eliminating petrol subsidies. However, the minister’s trip to London demonstrates that the incoming administration is at least cognizant of the need to protect its reputation and counteract perceptions in some capitals that it has the authority to enact reforms.
According to the official results, Obi received 6.1 million votes, Atiku Abubakar 6.9 million, and Bola Tinubu 8.79 million. Obi and the other candidate fell short of Nigeria’s other constitutional criteria, which is to receive at least 25% of the votes cast in at least 25 states of the federation. In 29 states, Bola Tinubu achieved that standard, and Tinubu’s Swearing in now seems set for May 29.
