Ohanaeze Ndigbo congratulates Bola Tinubu conceding that Peter Obi lost last weekend's election to him

PAN-Igbo socio-cultural organisation Ohanaeze Ndigbo appears to have conceded that former Anambra State governor Peter Obi lost last Saturday's presidential elections pointing out that an Igbo presidency is not destined to happen in 2023.

Nigerians went to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president and in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner. Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Inec chairman who served as the returning officer for the election, declared Asiwaju Tinubu the winner with 8,794,726  votes, defeating his nearest opponent, former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who came second with 6,984,520 votes.

Among the main frontrunners in the elections were Asiwaju Tinubu, Alhaji Abubakar, Governor Obi of the Labour Party and former Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP). However, the PDP and Labour Party have refused to accept the results, taking to the courts to challenge the APCs victory.

In what appears to be a significant development, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has congratulated Asiwaju Tinubu for his victory. Ambassador Tony Obizoba, Ohanaeze's director-general of  implementation and strategic planning, lauded the success of Asiwaju Tinubu as Nigeria's president-elect, saying it was gladdening to the heart.

Ambassador Obizoba said: “The group visualises the success of the APC flagbearer in the election contest as one that will lead to unifying Nigerians for a focused development plan that will follow. Tinubu is capable and we have no doubt in his capacity to ensure the continuity of the achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari, which are apparent, indisputably correct and will continue to stand as good legacies for generations of leaders to come.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo congratulates Peter Obi for creating an unprecedented commitment to changing the status quo with a hitherto unpopular political party, making great sweeps of votes across all regions but the northwest, to finish an unputdownable third position. This Igbo umbrella body will continue to remember Obi, the former governor of Anambra State, as one who, despite all odds, laboured hard to actualise a Nigerian president from Igboland.

"However, God has not destined it to happen in 2023 but it may happen later, God spare the life of everybody. It would not be out of place to also congratulate the PDPs presidential candidate, His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on his effort that ended in second position.

"Across the top three political parties were Igbo sons and daughters, who made the frantic effort because in the  APC, PDP and Labour Party, there are Igbo people who notably campaigned and voted. The bloc votes for Peter Obi in the southeast should not be seen by anyone as anti-other Nigerians.

"It is more to show that the Igbo do not hate themselves, as some Nigerians say. In all, the general performances of the candidates across parties have given this group the confidence to agree that the emergence of one of them, who is Tinubu of the APC, as president-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is well deserved and we say congratulations.

“We also want to seize this opportunity to call on some elements in Lagos State, who see the vote for the Labour Party’s Peter Obi as hate by Igbo people and who are, therefore, now threatening the lives of Igbo. It should not be so. From the investigations of Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide, the vote in Lagos was not solely an Igbo thing but a decisive voting system by a rainbow movement of people from across the tribes, who live and do business in Lagos State.

"It should be seen more as Nigerians across tribes exercising their franchise to freely vote to choose their leaders in a democracy as enshrined and guaranteed in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Those who are circulating videos, threatening and drumming the sounds of war over the coming governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State because of Igbo people, should stop it in the national interest of Nigeria and the collective good of the masses of the Nigerian people."