By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Former Governor of Lagos State and President-elect, Bola Tinubu and Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima have both been sworn in and inaugurated as President and Vice President of Nigeria, respectively.
They are the 16th President and Vice President of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Their Oath of Office was administered by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kayode Ariwoola, on Monday at Eagles Square Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Tinubu was declared the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He contested on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) Nigeria’s governing party.
He polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, who polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election while Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
He succeeds Muhammadu Buhari who has been in power since May 2015. His constitutional two terms of four years has officially come to an end.
Speaking shortly after his inauguration, Tinubu said he will extend the courtesy worthy of a fellow compatriot to his opponents in the February 25 election that brought him to power.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who was candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi a former governor of Anambra state are currently challenging Tinubu’s victory in court, alleging irregularities.
Tinubu argued that Nigeria had not had a better election than the recently concluded one in its history.
“My victory does not render me more Nigerian than the rest of you. It also does not render my opponents less Nigerjan than me. I will treat my opponents, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, as important compatriots,” Tinubu said.
