APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The refusal of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, to concede defeat in the February 25 presidential election, vowing to recover their mandate in court dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Punch reports that presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, have refused to concede defeat in the February 25 presidential election, vowing to recover their mandate in court.
The two candidates rebuffed the gesture of conciliation made by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, who in his acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the poll on Wednesday, asked them to support him in the task of building the nation.
Atiku and Obi spoke at separate news conferences in Abuja on Thursday.
In the early hours of Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Tinubu as the President-elect after the 70-year-old polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rivals, Atiku and Obi who scored 6,984,520 and 6,101, votes, respectively.
Breaking his silence 24 hours after Tinubu was declared the winner of the hotly contested polls, an emotional Obi insisted that he won the election and he was ready to prove it.
He noted that the election in which Tinubu was declared victorious was controversial and programmed to deliver pre-determined results.
He pointed out that the election did not meet the requirements and could not be deemed credible.
The former Anambra State governor insisted that Nigerians were robbed of their true choice, adding was ready to challenge the results till he proved his argument in court.
“The election that we just witnessed had been conducted and the results announced as programmed. It is a clear deviation from electoral rules and guidelines contrary to what we were promised.
“This election did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, fair, transparent and credible election. It will go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria.
“The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders whom they trusted,” he said.
Vowing to pursue and recover his mandate, the LP candidate said, “Let me reassure the good people of Nigeria that we will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate. We won the election and I will prove it to Nigerians.’’
The former governor said he believed the process through which people come into any position was important and there was a need for Nigeria to sanitise the process.
Obi added, “The process through which people come into the office is far more fundamental, more important than what they do (in office) thereafter.”
The newspaper says that the Executive Director of a citizens-led political movement, FixPolitics, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of breaching the trust of Nigerians with its reported failure to upload the February 25, 2023 general elections results to its portal via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System in real time, as it promised before the election.
Tony Ubani, in a statement on Thursday noted that this is a deviation from the various assurances by the commission’s officials that they were ready for the polls with deployment of the BVAS.
He also accused INEC of unpreparedness for the polls.
He stated, “At a press conference in November 2022, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu – conscious of growing public concern about the sincerity, transparency and commitment of the commission to credible elections, in which the votes of citizens will be respected – assured Nigerians the commission would upload polling results to its portal at the polling unit, immediately after voting, adding that citizens would have access to these results in real time.
“The performance and controversies over the results mean that the electoral reforms and lessons declared to have been learned were not applied and, as an electoral body, it was significantly less prepared than it claimed.”
According to Ubani, the commission had promised to upload results from the polling unit and that citizens would have access to those results in real time as they are uploaded.
Yakubu had stated in November that the programme cannot turn around and undermine itself, as this technology has come to stay.
He assured Nigerians that “We will upload polling unit results from the polling units. Citizens will have the right to view these results. After all, who are we serving? The citizens. How can we deprive citizens access to the results of the process conducted by them at the polling unit?
The Guardian reports that Nigeria prepares for a new administration, stakeholders have charted paths on how the nation will transit economically, ensure policy stability and urgent economic reforms.
Noting that the political gestation period has significant implications for businesses with a high level of uncertainty and risk of post-election violence, as well as issues of elevated policy risk, they argued that there was a need for policy stability, especially in areas where policies are constructive.
Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, said this at a seminar organised by the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), on the 2023 budget recently, with the theme ‘Federal Government of Nigeria Budget 2023 and the Change in Guards: What Next?’
He described policy stability as a risk faced during a transition period, which is expected with new appointments that might change some dynamics in the economy.
Part of what he mentioned was the long-awaited proposal to remove fuel subsidy in the middle of the year, querying how economically the response would be.
Speaking on how the nation will transit economically from a business point of view, Yusuf called for urgent reform in the oil and gas sector.
According to him, the economy has been bleeding through the sector for several decades.
He said Nigeria, which still depends heavily on the importation of petroleum products, has caused the country to perform poorly through the effects of low revenue generation and foreign exchange earnings.
This, the CPPE boss said, could be viewed from the huge amount lost to oil theft.
The newspaper says that despite price losses that outweighed gains, the bulls resurfaced on the equities sector of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), yesterday, as gains in Geregu, Airtel Africa, others lifted market capitalisation by N88 billion.
Specifically, at the close of transactions, market capitalisation of listed equities increased by N88 billion or 0.3 per cent to N30.326 trillion from N30.238 trillion recorded on Wednesday. Also, the All-Share Index, which measures the performance of listed equities, also rose by 161.63 basis points to 55670.24 points from 55508.61 points reported the previous day.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are, Geregu Power, Airtel Africa, Dangote Sugar Refinery, National Salt Company of Northern Nigeria, PZ Cussons, CWG and MCNicholas.
On the price movement chart, 17 stocks appreciated in price, while 25 constituted the losers’ chart. SUNU Assurance led the gainers chart with 10 per cent to close at 44 kobo while Dangote Sugar followed with a gain of 9.94 per cent to close at N29.35 kobo.
Mcnichols added 9.72 per cent to close at 79 kobo, Geregu Power Plc appreciated by 9.02 per cent to close at N325. National Salt Company of Northern Nigeria increased by 8.93 per cent to close at N12.20 kobo.
CWG added 8.89 per cent to close at 98 kobo, while FTN Cocoa gained 7.14 per cent to close at 30 kobo. UPDC appreciated by 4.90 kobo to close at N1.07 kobo. Unity Bank garnered 3.64 per cent to close at 57 kobo. PZ Cussons advanced by 3.40 kobo to close at N10.65 kobo. Airtel Africa improved by 89 per cent to close at N1,548.70.
However, Sovereign Trust Insurance emerged the day’s highest price loser, shedding 10 per cent to close at 27 kobo while Academy Press trailed with a drop of 9.38 per cent to close at N1.16 kobo.
Transnational Corporation of Nigeria dipped by 7.97 per cent to close at N1.27 kobo. Chams Plc was down by 7.14 per cent to close at 26 kobo. NGX group fell by 6.55 per cent to close at N27.10 kobo.
GIK/APA