Labor Party presidential candidate Peter Obi (centre) speaks to the media outside a polling station in Amatutu on February 25, 2023, before the opening of polling stations in the presidential election and general elections in Nigeria. 

 Nigeria`s Third Force candidate, Peter Obi, won Lagos State, defeating the influential ruling party candidate, Bola Tinubu, on his home turf, according to results reported by the state’s matching center.

Obi’s victory came as a surprise as the state was a stronghold of Tinubu, who was expected to easily win the state.

Tinubu is the former Governor of Lagos and is known there as godfather and political king. The 61-year-old Obi was especially popular with young people, many of whom described themselves as “submissive.” 

 The election was one of the most violent in Nigeria since 1999, and the two-party system that has dominated Nigerian politics since has faced an unprecedented threat from Obi’s Labor Party.

The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) reports that 93 million people nationwide have registered to vote and 87.2 million have received voter cards.  Many voters in Lagos  complained of threats and attempts to suppress the vote. 

CNN visited a polling station in Leki, Lagos, which came under attack and forced the military  to intervene. Dr. Chidi Nwagwu told CNN:

“We arrived around 10am. Voting materials are late and  ready to begin voting. He started having thugs come and beat people with chairs.

I was hit  with a chair several times. . Many women have been attacked, including  pregnant women. She was thrown to the ground and  her phone was broken. 

 Alicia Gberikon said: “There is bullying and it is a crime if you have a phone. People were beaten  and  phones were broken. It’s very scary.  Political scientist Remy Adekoya called Obi’s victory “the biggest shock in Tinubu’s political career”. 

 “This election is changing the political landscape in Nigeria. Peter Obi’s victory in Lagos, Ball’s hometown of Tinubu, showed that many Nigerians want the era of politics and new types of patronage to be over,” he added.

It is. However, Lagos-based Stears’ intelligence chief, Michael Famoroti,  warned that Obi would be hard pressed to repeat its national victory. “Peter Obi’s performance in Lagos is unlikely to spread across the country,” he said.

“Looking at its performance in other southwestern states, Lagos’ victory reinforces the idea that the Obedience movement remains somewhat concentrated among the economic elite.

Nigerian elections are consistently won in rural areas and the data so far shows that… Peter Obi still faces an uphill battle to win the necessary votes in key states. 

 Delays, interruptions and absences 

 Nigerians went to polling stations, Africa’s biggest democratic event, on Saturday but were marred by long delays and some voters were unable to cast their ballots due to the absence of election officials. 

 face. Yiaga Africa, a nonprofit civic group that sent 3,836 observers across the country, said it was disappointed with the election process.

“Honestly, I am disappointed with how the process went. Yiaga chief executive Samson Itodo told CNN. 

 Said CNN would reach out in a comment to INEC. 

 The Nigerian election process “lacked efficient planning and transparency during critical stages of the electoral process,”

the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) said in a preliminary statement on Monday.

The observers noted that delays in polling and “information gaps related to much anticipated access to results” on election day led to reduced trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The mission blamed insecurity in some areas, widespread allegations of vote buying, and ongoing fuel and cash shortages as some of the factors in a challenged election process. Another observer group,

a joint mission of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI), also criticized Saturday`s election, saying the process “fell well short of Nigerian citizens` reasonable expectations.” 

 “Logistical challenges and multiple incidents of political violence overshadowed the electoral process and impeded a substantial number of voters from participating,”

they said in a preliminary statement. As a result, the organizations say Nigerians were disenfranchised in many areas, but the “scope and scale are currently unknown.” 

 And former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo weighed in, asking the electoral commission to repeat polls in locations that were disrupted by violence or where officials failed to show,

and even calling on current president Muhammadu Buhari to intervene. In an open letter on Monday, the former leader accused INEC of corruption and said “danger and disaster”

would lurk in Nigeria if flaws in the electoral process were not corrected. “Tensions are rising,” said Obasanjo  Buhari. He said, “Let’s cancel all elections that fail the test of credibility and transparency.”