Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election, handing him the reins of Africa’s biggest economy as it confronts a deepening fiscal crisis, acute shortages of local and foreign currency and gasoline, and widespread insecurity.
(Bloomberg) — Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election, handing him the reins of Africa’s biggest economy as it confronts a deepening fiscal crisis, acute shortages of local and foreign currency and gasoline, and widespread insecurity.
With ballots from all of Nigeria’s 36 states and the federal capital territory tallied, Tinubu won 35.2% of the total votes, results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday show. Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party won 27.9% of overall ballots, while outsider candidate Peter Obi garnered 24.4%, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Tinubu, 70, pledged to work toward achieving “good governance, a functional economy and a safe nation,” in an acceptance speech at the ruling All Progressives Congress party’s headquarters in Abuja.
Electoral Authority Defends Results Process (Feb. 28, 4:14 p.m.)
Nigeria’s electoral authority defended its handling of the Feb. 25 presidential vote after opposition parties and civil-society groups criticized the results, citing disparities between official tallies and data available with parties’ polling agents.
Three of the parties said that they will boycott the process.
Allegations that the agency is declaring doctored results are “unfounded and irresponsible,” Rotimi Oyekanmi, a spokesman for the INEC, said in a statement on Tuesday. The scores announced so far “point to a free, fair and credible process,” he said.
Bonds Drop as Opposition Boycotts Vote-Counting Process (Feb. 28, 4:07 p.m.)
Nigerian bonds dropped for the first time in four days as a boycott of vote-counting by opposition parties jeopardized the uncontested result that markets want to see.
The country’s dollar bond due 2051 slid 1.7 cents to 69.88 on the US dollar, while securities maturing in 2047 and 2031 dropped less than one cent each, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
Its sovereign-risk premium widened 16 basis points, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. index. Investors worried the latest developments may delay the formation of a stable government that can carry out fiscal reforms needed to ease a crippling debt burden and stabilize the currency.
Vote Count Suspended in Oil Hub (Feb. 28, 3 p.m.)
An electoral officer in Rivers State, Nigeria’s main oil hub, suspended the collation of votes on Tuesday, saying he’d been blamed for the malfunctioning of the voter-verification system and his life had been threatened.
Charles Adias, state collation officer for the presidential election, told reporters, political party officials and law-enforcement agents gathered at the regional results center to disperse until the electoral commission clarified his role to the public.
Nigeria Vote Unlikely to Revive its Oil Industry (Feb. 27, 4:40 p.m.)
Whatever the outcome of the election, a revitalization of the nation’s oil industry is seen as unlikely in the short to medium term. Oil production has been in decline for over a decade, dropping from more than 2.5 million barrels per day in 2011 to less than 1.3 million barrels a day last year.
Fiscal hardship, persistent oil theft and the prioritization of lower-risk assets by oil majors remain significant bottlenecks that do not lend themselves to a quick-fix solution.
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