Winning the most votes in a national election is not sufficient to become the president of Nigeria, as the country’s constitution imposes a strict geographic spread requirement on candidates. Under Section 134(2) of the 1999 Constitution, a candidate must secure the highest number of votes cast while also obtaining at least 25 percent of the votes in each of at least two-thirds of the country’s states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
This dual requirement means that neither a total of 10 million nor 15 million votes guarantees victory on its own. With Nigeria comprising 36 states and the FCT, the mathematical interpretation of "two-thirds" has been a subject of legal debate. Lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has interpreted the provision to mean either 25 states or 24 states plus the FCT, noting that the Constitution defines Nigeria as a federation consisting of states and a Federal Capital Territory.
Supreme Court Clarification
The question of whether securing 25 percent of the vote in Abuja is a separate, compulsory test was resolved by the Supreme Court following the 2023 presidential election. Candidates Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) argued that Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had failed to meet the requirement in the FCT, where Tinubu scored approximately 20 percent while Obi won the territory.
On Thursday, 26th October 2023, a Supreme Court panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro upheld the lower court's ruling, holding that the FCT has no special status above the states.
The court’s decision relied on Section 299 of the Constitution, which treats the FCT as a state for electoral purposes. Consequently, the 25 percent threshold in Abuja is not a standalone condition for victory. This legal precedent follows an earlier dispute in 1979, when the Supreme Court settled a similar argument regarding the number of states required for President Shehu Shagari’s victory, concluding that the requirement could be met through a combination of full state majorities and a portion of a fractional state.
Contingency Provisions and 2023 Results
If no candidate meets both the national majority and the geographic spread conditions, Section 134 mandates that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) organize a run-off election within seven days. This run-off would feature the candidate with the highest overall vote count and the candidate with a majority of votes in the highest number of states. Should this second round fail to produce a winner, a third election is held between the same two candidates, where a simple majority is sufficient without the spread requirement.
In the 2023 election, these rules were applied when Bola Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes, roughly 36.6 percent of the 24,025,940 valid votes cast. Although Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar each won 12 states, and Peter Obi won 11 states plus the FCT, Tinubu met the 25 percent spread test in enough states to avoid a run-off. INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu subsequently declared Tinubu the winner, stating that he had satisfied the requirements of the law.
<small>Source: Vanguard News — read the original story there.</small>
