Tinubu, supporters celebrate Nigeria election win

Election officials declared governing party candidate Bola Tinubu the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election.

The governing party candidate, Bola Tinubu, was declared the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election early on Wednesday.

Soon after, he thanked his supporters and appealed to his rivals, who have been demanding revoting in Africa’s most populous nation, to accept the result.

The announcement by election officials overnight was likely to lead to a court challenge by the second- and third-highest finishers in the weekend vote, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.

Abubakar finished second in the 2019 polls, and he appealed the results before his lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.

Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress party urged the opposition to accept defeat and not cause trouble after they demanded revoting saying that delays in uploading election results had made room for irregularities.

Tinubu received nearly 8.8 million votes, or 37 percent, while the main opposition candidate, Abubakar, won 29 percent. Third-place finisher Obi took 25 percent with about 6.1 million votes, according to the results announced on live television by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Source: aljazeera

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FBI director says China laboratory leak was likely COVID source

 FBI Director Christopher Wray accuses China of thwarting efforts to identify the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak.

FBI Director Christopher Wray says his agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wray’s comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the US Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.

“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News on Tuesday.

Four other US agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, believe that the pandemic was likely the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby also said on Monday that the US government had not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic’s origins.

Wray also told Fox News that China had thwarted efforts to identify the origin of the virus. But investigations were still ongoing, he said, adding that he was currently unable to share “a whole lot of details that are classified”.

“I will just make the observation that the Chinese government … has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing,” he said.

The FBI later tweeted the director’s comments.

China’s foreign ministry, asked to comment on the Wall Street Journal report, referred to a joint report by the World Health Organization and China that pointed towards a natural origin for the pandemic rather than a lab leak.

“On the origins-tracing of SARS-CoV-2, China has been open and transparent, and shared information and data on COVID-19 with the international community in a timely manner,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Tuesday.

“China is the only country that has invited more than once WHO expert groups to come into the country to conduct joint origins study. China has shared more data and research findings on SARS-CoV-2 origins study than any other country,” she said.

Mao also said the US should look at its own biological laboratories scattered across the world.

“It is the US who should respond to the world’s questions and concerns over Fort Detrick and its military and biological labs across the world,” she said.

“By politicising the issue, the US will not succeed in discrediting China. Instead, it will only hurt the US’s own credibility.”

The WHO’s global COVID-19 trackers reported that, as of February 21, there had been more than 757 million virus infections and 6.85 million related deaths.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Best person for the job – Buhari hails Tinubu’s win

 Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated president-elect Bola Tinubu, saying he is the best man for the job.

“I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power,” the president said in a statement.

Mr Tinubu’s win has been disputed by opposition parties, who have demanded a rerun.

President Buhari is stepping down after two terms in office.

He acknowledged challenges in the voting procedure, but said there was no doubt to the “freeness and fairness of the elections”.

“If they [opposition parties] feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets,” he said.

Source: BBC

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Nigeria Delivered ‘Africa’s Largest Democratic Exercise’ Despite Faults – Buhari

 President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has commented on the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections won by the ruling party’s candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Buhari’s official statement came barely an hour after Tinubu had been declared winner of the February 25 vote beating off competition from former vice president Atiku Abubakar and one-time Anambra State governor, Peter Obi.

Buhari’s statement congratulated Nigerians for the conduct of the polls as well as the outcomes, surprising as some were across the country.
He stressed that he was happy that Nigeria had delivered “Africa’s largest democratic exercise,” admitting that faults identified will lead to reforms in the future.

“The election was Africa’s largest democratic exercise. In a region that has undergone backsliding and military coups in recent years, this election demonstrates democracy’s continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves,” the statement read in part.

In his message to the vanquished, the outgoing president noted: “I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That too is fine. If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then bring forward the evidence.
“If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was indeed the people’s will no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets.

INEC declares Tinubu president-elect
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the results in the wee hours of Wednesday.
Tinubu was in the race along with the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
In terms of the hard figures, APC polled 8,805,655 valid votes as against the PDP’s 6,984,520 and LP’s 6,098,588.
The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) got 1,496,687 valid votes whiles the fourteen other aspirants together got the remaining 666,298.

Nigeria’s peculiar means of determining president means that the winner must get at least 25% of votes in two thirds of the 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
Tinubu had at least 25% of votes in 29 states, Atiku had 25% of votes in 21 states, Obi had 25% of votes in 16 states whiles Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP passed the threshold in only one state.
Tinubu is expected to be handed his certificate later today at the Abuja International Conference Center where INEC had used as the collation center for the presidential elections.

FULL STATEMENT: STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE
PRESIDENT BUHARI CONGRATULATES WINNER OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU
President Muhammadu Buhari heartily congratulates the winner of the (2023) Presidential Election, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Reacting to the results just announced, President Buhari said:
“I congratulate His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory. Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power.
“The election was Africa’s largest democratic exercise. In a region that has undergone backsliding and military coups in recent years, this election demonstrates democracy’s continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves.

“Within Nigeria, the results reveal democracy’s ripening in our country. Never has the electoral map shifted so drastically in one cycle. In the presidential elections, states in all regions across the nation changed colour. Some amongst you may have noticed my home state amongst them. The winning candidate did not carry his own home state either. That happens during a competitive election.
Votes and those that cast them cannot be taken for granted. Each must be earned. Competition is good for our democracy. There is no doubt the people’s decision has been rendered in the results we look at today.

“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. However, none of the issues registered represent a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections.

“I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That too is fine. If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then bring forward the evidence. If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was indeed the people’s will no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets.

“However, to do the latter means they are not doing it in the interest of the people, but rather to inflame, to put people in harm’s way and all for personal, selfish gains.
“After a degree of polarization that necessarily accompanies any election, it is now time to come together and act responsibly. I call on all candidates to remember the peace pledge they signed just days before the election. Do not undermine the credibility of INEC. Let us now move forward as one. The people have spoken.”

Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)
March 1, 2023

Source: ghanaweb.com

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White House says it’s open to tighter restrictions on TikTok

 Remarks come as legislation to ban the Chinese-owned app in the US is making its way through Congress.

The White House has said it is open to further action on curbing TikTok as legislation to ban the Chinese-owned app in the United States began making its way through the US Congress.

The video-sharing service has more than a billion users worldwide, including more than 100 million in the US, where it has become a cultural force, especially among young people, which has raised alarm bells among legislators.

President Joe Biden’s administration is out to thwart China and other countries from “seeking to leverage digital technologies and Americans’ data in ways that present unacceptable national security risks,” said White House press secretary Olivia Dalton on Tuesday.

“We’ll continue to look at other actions that we can take and that includes how to work with Congress on this issue,” Dalton told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee was set to vote later Tuesday on legislation introduced by Republicans that would give Biden the authority to outright ban TikTok in the US.

The bill then would go to a full vote in the House of Representatives, where its passage was also likely.

Appearing tough on China is one of the rare issues with potential for bipartisan support in both the Republican-run House and the Senate, where Biden’s Democratic Party holds a majority.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it opposed the recently introduced bill, arguing it would curb free speech.

“Congress must not censor entire platforms and strip Americans of their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression,” Jenna Leventoff, the ACLU’s senior policy counsel, said.

The law will begin to snake its way through Congress as Western governments continue to ban TikTok from government devices, following a similar ban Biden signed into law in January.

The White House on Monday gave federal agencies 30 days to purge TikTok from all government-issued devices, setting a deadline to comply with a ban.

TikTok sharply criticised the bans as “little more than political theatre.”

“We hope that when it comes to addressing national security concerns about TikTok beyond government devices, Congress will explore solutions that won’t have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter told AFP.

“Unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments,” Oberwetter said.

Denmark’s parliament announced Tuesday that it asked MPs and staff to remove TikTok from mobile devices because of the “risk of spying.”

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, banned the app on work devices to “protect” the institution, while Canada’s government this week banned TikTok from all of its phones and devices.

TikTok has waited months for the findings of a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a government agency that assesses foreign investments’ risks to national security.

“The swiftest and most thorough way to address national security concerns is for CFIUS to adopt the proposed agreement that we worked with them on for nearly two years,” TikTok’s Oberwetter said.

Owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, TikTok has become a political target due to concerns the app can be circumvented for spying or propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party.

TikTok has repeatedly rejected accusations it shares data or cedes control to the Chinese government.

US national security concerns over alleged Chinese spying soared in recent weeks after a Chinese balloon traversed US airspace and was eventually shot down.

SOURCE: AFP

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US energy dept says COVID probably leaked from Wuhan lab

 Investigations into the origins of a virus that has now killed nearly 7 million people have been hampered by politics and a lack of access and transparency.

COVID-19 was probably the result of a leak from a laboratory, according to a newly updated classified report from the United States Department of Energy obtained by the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

The new coronavirus — SARS-CoV-2 — first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and quickly spread around the world, so far killing nearly 7 million people. It also created turmoil in the global economy as countries closed borders and ordered lockdowns to try and curb the spread of a virus against which there were, initially, no effective vaccines.

The judgement for the latest classified report arose out of new intelligence and was made with “low confidence”, the Journal reported on Sunday. The energy department oversees a network of US laboratories, including some that undertake advanced biological research.

The latest findings suggest a change in the view of the US energy department, which said previously it was undecided on how the virus emerged. The officials declined to elaborate on the intelligence that had prompted the department to change its position. It now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in saying the virus probably spread after a mishap at a laboratory, a conclusion the FBI reached in 2021 with “moderate confidence”.

Four US intelligence agencies believe with “low confidence” that COVID-19 took place through natural transmission, while two others remain undecided, the Journal added.

Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the update reaffirmed an existing consensus that COVID-19 was not the result of a Chinese biological weapons programme, the people who had read the classified report told the newspaper.

The report, extending to five pages, was prepared for the White House and members of Congress, the Journal said.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said there were still a “variety of views” on the issue.

Speaking on CNN on Sunday, he stressed US President Joe Biden had repeatedly asked the intelligence community to invest in trying to find out as much as possible about how the pandemic started.

“President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Energy Department, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here,” Sullivan said.

In mid-February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) promised to do everything possible “until we get the answer” on the origins of the virus, denying a report that suggested the agency had abandoned its investigation.

After much delay, a WHO team travelled to Wuhan, China, in early 2021 to visit the Huanan market where the first cluster of cases emerged and which was closed and cleaned soon after the virus began to spread. Working alongside Chinese scientists, they also visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a biosecurity lab where researchers had been working on bats.

The investigation faced criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not sufficiently evaluating the lab-leak theory, which it deemed “extremely unlikely”. It said the most likely explanation was that the virus originated in a bat before crossing to an intermediary animal and making the jump to humans.

China has accused the US of politicising the investigation and for ‘scapegoating’ the country after former US President Donald Trump dubbed SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, the “Chinese virus”.

Finding the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is seen as crucial in order to better fight or even prevent another pandemic.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has insisted that all hypotheses remain on the table and called on China to provide further access to investigate.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Opposition parties challengeTinubu’s win in Ekiti

 Party agents of the Nigeria’s opposition PDP and Labour are contesting the results of south-western Ekiti state, saying there was over-voting.

Official results showed the state was won by ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu. Ekiti is seen as one of his strongholds.

Mr Tinubu has won in his south-western strongholds of Ondo, Ekiti and Kwara, narrowly losing to Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun state, according to results announced by state election officials.

Mr Abubakar has also narrowly won the presidential election in Katsina, the home state of outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.

The results from the states still have to be formally announced by the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) at its headquarters in the capital, Abuja.

The delays in getting results from the states and the capital, Abuja, have led to growing frustration.

The electoral commission has apologised for the unresponsiveness of the results viewing page on its website, saying a surge in use caused technical hitches.

The delays are partly a result of the election continuing for a second day in parts of the country.

The election on Saturday saw voting start several hours late in many areas, and also attacks on some polling stations.

Source:BBC

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