Nigeria elections: Buhari’s dream of handing over to his own party candidate fulfilled

President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, H.E. Muhammadu Buhari will be handing over power happily.

His dreams before the elections were to hand over power to another person from the All Progressives Congress party, which is Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The outgoing president announced on February 22 that his party is going all out for victory in the recently concluded election held on Saturday, February 25.

In a tweet, Mr. Buhari said the final APC rally in Lagos on February 21 showed that Nigerians will keep them in power.

"The Grand Finale Rally of the Presidential Campaign of our great party, APC, took place in Lagos yesterday. We are going into Saturday confident of victory," he said.

President Buhari continued, "Vote Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the next President of Nigeria.”

The Nigerian presidential elections, per several surveys and the final results, suggested a fierce contest between three candidates: Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, opposition leader Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the previously unknown Labour Party.

In affirmation, and just as Tinubu himself captioned his campaign messages, "It’s my turn," the election results gave him the long-awaited opportunity to become the next president of Africa’s most populous country.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the 70-year-old veteran politician as the president-elect after he polled 8,794,726 votes in the 2023 presidential election held over the weekend.

Tinubu clinched the magical victory ahead of other close contenders: the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi; and the New Nigeria Peoples Party candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The three leading presidential candidates won 12 states each, while Kwankwaso claimed only Kano State.