"I am leaving behind an electoral process which guarantees that votes count, results are credible, elections are fair and transparent and the influence of money in politics reduced to the barest minimum, and Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice."

In his farewell message to Nigerians to end his eight years in office, President Muhammadu Buhari said he is leaving Nigeria's electoral process and democracy more resilient than he met it in 2015.

Mr Buhari, who signed the Electoral Act 2022 into law, also said the electoral process has significantly reduced the influence of money in politics.

According to the departing Nigerian leader, evidence of the fairness of the electoral process was the defeat of candidates with more financial resources by candidates who have less access to money.

"To ensure that our democracy remains resilient and our elected representatives remain accountable to the people, I am leaving behind an electoral process which guarantees that votes count, results are credible, elections are fair and transparent and the influence of money in politics reduced to the barest minimum, and Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice," he said in the nationwide broadcast on Sunday.

"We are already seeing the outcome of this process as it provided an even playing field where persons without any political godfather or access to money defeated other well-resourced candidates."

The outgoing president said he had watched the country move away from the path of correctness and, therefore, started his journey as a president with the intention of doing the correct thing and not just being politically correct.

"I started this journey with a great deal of promise and expectation from you. I never intended to be just politically correct, but to do the correct thing that will make a meaningful impact on the lives of the common Nigerian. This high expectation was not misplaced because, like the ordinary Nigerian, I have grown tired of seeing the country progressively moving away from the path of correctness."

Mr Buhari will on Monday hand over to President-elect Bola Tinubu. Both men are members of the same All Progressive Congress, APC.

Mr Tinubu won the keenly contested 25 February presidential election, defeating 17 other presidential candidates. But his victory is being challenged in court by Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who came second and third respectively.