Eighteen months after the 2023 presidential election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has provided a detailed explanation for its decision to declare the results in the early hours of March 1, 2023.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was announced as the winner with 8,794,726 votes, surpassing his main opponents, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).

The announcement, made by INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu at approximately 2 am, raised concerns among Nigerians, particularly those whose political parties did not win.

Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, addressed these concerns, explaining that the country is treated as a single constituency during presidential elections.

This necessitates a comprehensive process of collating results from polling units, wards, local governments, and states before presenting them at the national level in Abuja.

Oyekanmi elaborated, "The chairman had to wait for the 36 returning officers, including those from distant locations like Sokoto and Maiduguri, to present their results as required by law." He further clarified that neither the Constitution nor the Electoral Act specifies a particular time for declaring election results.

"In a presidential election, the country is treated as one constituency. Results are declared at polling units, then collated at the ward, local government, and state levels before being presented in Abuja to the Chief Electoral Commissioner," he said.

He also noted that the INEC Chairman must personally interview the returning officers, questioning them and potentially sending them back if their reports are unsatisfactory.

"Only after accepting all figures from the returning officers and the FCT can results be collated and announced. The delay led to claims that we declared results in the middle of the night."

Referencing a similar occurrence in 2015, Oyekanmi mentioned, "Prof. Attahiru Jega declared the 2015 results around 4 am. The constitution does not prescribe a specific time for declaring election results."