U.S. authorities urged for calm in the West African country on Wednesday amid suspicions of voter fraud and congratulated Bola Tinubu, the winner of Nigeria’s hotly contested elections, on his victory.
On the eve of the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Nigerian counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama, and expressed his congratulations for choosing Bola Tinubu as the country’s new leader.
The 2023 presidential election, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price, will mark a fresh beginning for Nigeria.
“This competitive election represents a new period for Nigerian politics and democracy,” said Price
The spokesperson for the State Department also cited discontent among West Africans who claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rigged the results.
“We understand that many Nigerians and some of the parties have expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted,” said Price, adding, “Nigerians are clearly within their rights to have such concerns and should have high expectations for the electoral process.”
The 2023 elections, according to University of Abuja political science professor Karibu Mato, were momentous.
“From my observations is that this was the most competitive of elections, closely you know, the three major candidates following one another. So, in my view it was merely an expression of the majority of Nigerian voter’s desires,” said Mato.
The political science professor further applauded INEC for its introduction of the BVAS system but noted the rigging allegations expressed by opposition candidates.
“Of course, we have improved significantly in terms of quality of our electoral system. The introduction of BVAS which is ICT compliant and recognition of individual voters. It might have gone a long way in removing the traditional ballot box stuffing,” he said.
“In the conduct of the election, the opposition parties are not disputing that it was free, fair, and credible. The bone of contention was the issue of transmitting results from the polling station to the server, uploading results to the server. I think that was the bone of contention,” he added.