Arewa forum to Tinubu: Ignore voting patterns | Treat the country as one

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has asked Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president-elect, to ignore voting patterns that brought him into power.

Announcing the results early on Wednesday, Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said Tinubu secured a total of 8,794,726 votes to win the polls.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the second-highest figure with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was next with 6,101,533 votes.

In a statement on Wednesday in Kaduna, Murtala Aliyu, secretary-general of the forum, congratulated Tinubu and urged him to treat all Nigerians as one big family.

“In offering our congratulations to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the winner of this (Presidential) election, we hasten to remind him that he does not have all that much time to redeem his pledge to become a leader and unifier of all Nigerians,” Aliyu said.

“ACF welcomes his promise to run an inclusive government made in his acceptance speech. 

“To become a leader of all Nigerians requires him to ignore the voting pattern that brings him to power and treat the entire country as one big family.

“This is more so because no nation thrives through the victory of its factions but by ultimate reconciliation.”

However, the forum highlighted that despite the majority of good remarks from observers, there were avoidable mistakes and obvious incompetence made by officials at all levels in the electoral process. 

“It has to be admitted (that) no one in good conscience ever thought an exercise as gigantic as conducting a general election in a country of over 200 million people would go without hitches or setbacks,” Aliyu noted

“No country under the sun has ever conducted elections that are perfect, without errors. 

“We are after all, still early within our learning curve in this democratic experience. 

“Anticipating shortcomings, our laws have already provided for judicial mechanisms for resolving or redressing possible disputes and disagreements among the contestants,” the statement said.

“Those who failed to win this time should know that they have several opportunities to try to do so in the future.

“They should therefore exhibit the spirit of sportsmanship. 

“The ACF makes bold to say that Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Musa Rabi’u Kwankwaso of NNPP and the other presidential candidates that stood against Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, all ran admirably strong and sophisticated campaigns. 

“With a few exceptions, they tried this time around to pursue issue-based campaigns. 

“They should all be justly proud of their achievements. 

“For Peter Obi and Musa Kwankwaso, in particular, who are relatively younger and have age on their side, it is clear that they have established their credentials as powerful presidential candidates which may be helpful in the years to come.”