By AFP

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President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday congratulated the declared winner of Nigeria's 2023 presidential elections, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying he was the best man for the job.

Tinubu, candidate of Buhari's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), won 8.8 million votes against 6.9 million for opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar and 6.1 million for the Labour Party's Peter Obi in Saturday's election, according to final results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria.

INEC declared Tinubu as president-elect after he secured the required 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and capital.

Two terms

Tinubu will succeed Buhari, a former army general, who will step down on May 29 after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Nigerian constitution.

"I congratulate His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory. Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job," Buhari said on Twitter.

"I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power." he added.

Buhari urged distressed opposition parties which had called for the election to be cancelled to be calm and maintain peace despite their objections.

"There is no doubt the people’s decision has been rendered in the results," he said.

Not without fault

"That is not to say the exercise was without fault. For instance, there were technical problems with electronic transmission of the results. Of course, there will be areas that need work to bring further transparency and credibility to the voting procedure."

"None of the issues reported represent a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections," Buhari declared.

He further stated that evidence must be brought forward by candidates who believed they could prove election fraud claims committed against them.