Festus Keyamo, the chief spokesperson for the Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaign team, has stated that only the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, met all of the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the February 25 elections.
Keyamo made the announcement during a press conference with members of the international press in Washington, DC, United States of America.
Speaking about the outcome of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, Keyamo stated that while the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, both won in twelve states, only Tinubu met the constitutionally required spread of at least one-quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the Federation plus the majority votes.
He contended that the outcome demonstrated that there was no path to victory for the other candidates other than Tinubu of the APC.
The statement reads:
Our Constitution requires a Presidential candidate to secure the highest number of votes and score at at least one-quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the States of the Federation which includes the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Only Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu met these requirements especially that of the spread (he scored 25 percent and above in 29 States), even though all 3 top candidates won 12 States each. The candidate of the PDP scored 25% and above in just 21 States, falling short of the 24 States required and the candidate of the Labour Party scored 25% and above in 15 States plus the Federal Capital Territory, making it 16 States. There was just no pathway to victory for these candidates who did not have the requisite national acceptability. So, how tenable is the claim of rigging the elections? We see none.
2023 Elections Credible
Keyamo further argued that the 2023 presidential election though keenly contested, is free, fair, and credible and that is why some major politicians including those of the ruling APC lost in their strongholds to opposition parties.
It is significant to note that the elections were so credible that it threw up some upsets in our otherwise settled demography. For the first time, 20 sitting Governors lost their States, mostly those of the ruling party. Seven Governors who sought elections into the Senate failed to scale through. This has never happened in the history of Nigeria. In addition, the President-Elect lost his home State (Lagos State); the sitting President lost his home State (Katsina State); the Director-General of the Campaign lost his home State (Plateau State); the ruling Party Chairman lost his home State (Nassarawa State); the Chairman of the ruling Party’s Governor Forum lost his home State (Kebbi State) and the ruling party lost some of its traditional strong holds like Yobe State, Kaduna State and Kano State. All these go to show that it was a keenly contested election and one of the most credible in our history.
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