The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) declared victory for its<\/p>\n
candidate, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, in Nigeria’s
\npresidential election on Tuesday and said the country was “witnessing
\nhistory”.<\/p>\n
“This is the first time in Nigeria that a sitting government will be voted
\nout of power using purely democratic means,” APC spokesman Lai Mohammed
\ntold Reuters at the house in the capital where Buhari was watching the
\nresults come in.<\/p>\n
“The people of Nigeria have taken over.”<\/p>\n
He said the APC had no reason to doubt that President Goodluck Jonathan
\nwould concede defeat.<\/p>\n
“He said several times that he would relinquish power if he was voted out
\nin a free and fair election,” Mohammed said.
\nFormer army general Buhari ruled between 1983 and 1985 after seizing power
\nin a coup. Ousted himself in another military takeover led by General
\nIbrahim Babangida in August 1985, he declared himself a convert to
\ndemocracy and has since run and lost in several previous elections.<\/p>\n
Jonathan’s five years at the helm of Africa’s most populous country and
\nbiggest economy have been plagued by corruption scandals and a Boko Haram
\nIslamist insurgency. His People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has run Nigeria
\nsince the end of military rule in 1999.<\/p>\n
Bar some technical glitches and the killing of more than a dozen voters by
\nBoko Haram militants in the northeast, the election has been the smoothest
\nand most orderly in recent history – a factor that appears to have played
\nin the outcome.<\/p>\n
“There are probably lots of reasons why the PDP might have lost, but I
\nthink the key one is that the elections just haven’t been rigged,” said
\nAntony Goldman, a business consultant with high-level contacts in Nigeria.
\n“NEW DIRECTION”<\/p>\n
In the Abuja house where Buhari was staying, there was restrained joy –
\nfitting with his image as a sandal-wearing Muslim ascetic – tinged with a
\nsense of responsibility to manage the transition in a country with a long
\nhistory of political violence.<\/p>\n
“We should all work together to redirect the country. A lot of sacrifices
\nwill have to be made,” Kwara state senator and senior APC official Bukola
\nSaraki said.<\/p>\n
In a sign of simmering PDP passions, Buhari’s march to victory was briefly
\ninterrupted when Godsday Orubebe, a former minister from the Niger Delta,
\ngrabbed a microphone and launched into a 10-minute rant against election
\ncommissioner Attahiru Jega at the body’s headquarters in the capital.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Chairman, we have lost confidence in what you are doing,” he shouted.
\n“You are being very, very selective. You are partial.”<\/p>\n
Orubebe was finally persuaded to end his sit-in and put down the
\nmicrophone, allowing the results ceremony to continue.<\/p>\n
MARKETS CHEER<\/p>\n
At least 15 people were shot dead on polling day, most of them in the
\nnortheast where Boko Haram has declared war on democracy in its fight to
\nrevive a mediaeval caliphate in the sands of the southern Sahara.<\/p>\n
However, the level of violence and chaos was significantly lower than
\nprevious elections in the country of 170 million, which only got rid of
\nmilitary rule 16 years ago.<\/p>\n
The relatively orderly conduct also eased fears of a repeat of the
\nviolence that followed a Buhari defeat to Jonathan in 2011, when 800
\npeople were killed in three days of blood-letting in the predominantly
\nMuslim north.<\/p>\n
As Buhari’s vote tally mounted, flashpoint northern cities such as Kaduna
\nand Kano were quiet, helping push the stock market up almost 1 percent to
\na three-week high. The naira also held steady at 218 against the dollar on
\nthe black market.<\/p>\n
“With projections that Buhari may eventually be announced president-elect,
\nit sends a positive signal to the markets that there would be a change to
\nthe way things have been done in the past,” Ayodeji Ebo, head of research
\nat Afrinvest said.<\/p>\n
Although Nigeria’s economy has been growing at 7 percent or more, scandals
\nover billions of dollars in missing oil receipts and the rise of the Boko
\nHaram insurgency in which thousands have died undermined Jonathan’s
\npopularity.<\/p>\n
The president’s perceived slow reaction to the kidnapping of more than 200
\nschoolgirls from the village of Chibok in April last year by Boko Haram
\nalso caused widespread anger.<\/p>\n
Buhari, a Muslim northerner, campaigned on his reputation as a military
\nstrongman who could crush Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
The war has turned in Jonathan’s favor in the past six weeks. The Islamist
\nmilitants controlled an area the size of Belgium at the start of the year,
\nbut a string of military victories by troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon
\nand Niger has reclaimed much of the territory. But that progress appears
\nto have been be too late for him.<\/p>\n
Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) declared victory for its candidate, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, in Nigeria’s presidential election on Tuesday and said the country was “witnessing history”. “This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n