Last Saturday’s tense presidential election has come and gone with the announcement of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) announced as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Tinubu, according to the electoral umpire, won in 12 states, polling a total number of 8.79 million votes, more than a million votes higher than the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who finished second.
Chairman of the INEC, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, who doubles as the Chief Returning Officer for the presidential election, announced that former Vice President Atiku garnered a total number of 6.98 million votes from 12 states.
Trailing closely at the third spot is the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, who got 6.10 million votes, winning 12 states.
Coming a distance fourth is the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, who scored 1.49 million votes despite winning only his state, Kano, harvesting 997,279 votes.
The development has put to rest three months of politicking by presidential candidates of the 18 political parties that participated in the election.
For some, the announcement calls for a victory dance but for others, as usual, it raises more questions than answers. As usual, too, celebrations have since started pouring in for the winner of the election from within and outside of Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari, chiefly, has since, heartily, congratulated the winner Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In his initial reaction to the development, the President said: “I congratulate His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on his victory. Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power.
“The election was Africa’s largest democratic exercise. In a region that has undergone backsliding and military coups in recent years, this election demonstrates democracy’s continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves.
“Within Nigeria, the results reveal democracy’s ripening in our country. Never has the electoral map shifted so drastically in one cycle. In the presidential elections, states in all regions across the nation changed colour. Some of you may have noticed my home state among them. The winning candidate did not carry his home state either. That happens during a competitive election. Votes and those that cast them cannot be taken for granted. Each must be earned. Competition is good for our democracy. There is no doubt that people’s decision has been rendered in the results we look at today.
“That is not to say the exercise was without fault. For instance, there were technical problems with the electronic transmission of the results. Of course, there will be areas that need work to bring further transparency and credibility to the voting procedure. However, none of the issues registered represents a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections.
“I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That, too, is fine. If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then, bring forward the evidence. If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was indeed the people’s will – no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets.
“However, to do the latter means they are not doing it in the interest of the people, but rather to inflame, to put people in harm’s way and all for personal, selfish gains.
“After a degree of Polarisation that necessarily accompanies any election, it is now time to come together and act responsibly. I call on all candidates to remember the peace pledge they signed just days before the election. Do not undermine the credibility of INEC. Let us now move forward as one. The people have spoken.”
Of course, with a winner now in place, the question that remains to be asked is, what works, and there are many, await the president-elect?
When he is sworn in, Tinubu will inherit a country bogged by huge debts and a malfunctioning economic system. The country’s economy is struggling. It has had two recessions in five years, partly due to policy missteps and the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cash and fuel shortages have also caused nationwide anger in the weeks leading up to the election.
Beyond that, the new administration will have to deal with rampant insecurity across almost all six geopolitical zones.
Boko Haram has been conducting a 13-year armed campaign in the northeast, and multiple armed groups operate elsewhere in the country, including secessionists in the South-east and gangs of bandits in the North-west and central Nigeria.
Nigeria’s ethnic and religious divisions are highlighted in the election results.
However, as the list of problems to be inherited by Tinubu seems endless, the president-elect appears not to be cowed by them. Tinubu said: “I will work to make Nigeria great.”
Tinubu, tellingly, appeals to Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso and other contestants to join him and work for the unity of this country, saying “I want to work with you to ensure that we take Nigeria to a destination of choice.”
Maiduguri Monday Market fire calls for strict vigil
Following an outbreak of a major fire incident which has razed the popular Maiduguri Monday Market, in Maiduguri, Borno State, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, has called on people to be vigilant and avoid actions capable of causing inferno in public and private places.
The President expressed his grief over the destruction caused by the early morning fire on Sunday and said that the nation’s prayers and condolences are with the hardworking traders and their families who have reportedly saved very little or nothing from the fire.
Of course, the recent fire incident at the Maiduguri Monday Market was tragic, considering the level and amount of losses incurred. Yet, such an incident was not the first, in fact, the Sabon Gari Market in Kano, reported last year, witnessed the worst market fire disaster in Nigeria, taking down with it some 3,800 shops and goods estimated at N2 trillion.
Sadly, in a space of few months after the kano incident, 10 major markets across the country went down with goods and property worth trillions of naira.
Expectedly, the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTs) is alarmed and pained at the spate of market fires in the country. In the last 17 years, the association estimated the cost of goods lost to fire incidents at a hefty N5.3 trillion. Among the gutted markets was the famous Balogun Market on Lagos Island. The early morning inferno razed six buildings within the market and some 50 lockup shops in January 2015. Some N30 billion worth of goods were lost to the fire incident.
What compounds the tragedy, according to NANTs President, Mr Ken Ukaoha, was that in all the instances, the authorities could only offer sympathy visits and pronouncements of support, which were hardly backed up with any concrete measures.
Perhaps what made these losses haunting is that most traders do not insure their goods and, therefore, cannot recover their losses in the event of disasters.
Many reasons have been identified as possible causes of market infernos.
In his message of sympathy to Monday Market victims in Maiduguri, the President said warned people to be wary of winds and rising temperatures which he says to increase the risks of fires in forests, homes, public buildings and markets.
Other reasons include fuel storage, power surges (the cause of the Kano inferno), the illegal connection of electricity, carelessness due to lit matches or forgotten candle lights, stoves, cookers and gas cylinders in the markets as well as ignorance of safety procedures and, of course, the often lousy and ineffective response to emergencies by the fire-fighting agency.
However, in the case of Maiduguri, while the President commended the immediate response of Governor Babagana Zulum’s government to the incident and directed effective coordination and collaboration between federal and state agencies to bring needed relief to those who are affected, it can be said that many of the fire disasters in the country are preventable.
Unfortunately, measures were not taken to prevent the outbreaks of fire in markets in Nigeria. In most countries, it is not just enough to design and construct buildings, it is also important to make allowances for possible outbreaks of fire by ensuring the availability of fire-fighting equipment in such facilities. Making such allowances is, indeed, part of urban planning.
Therefore, it is heartwarming that the President urged the state and federal government agencies responsible for fire management to strive towards higher levels of preparedness, and mitigation efforts and strengthen their response mechanisms to deal with the increasing menace of the market and other fire disasters.
