31st March, 2015
The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, is on the verge of being declared winner of the presidential election held last Saturday throughout Nigeria.
It was the fourth time Buhari would contest to govern Nigeria. He had failed three times, but his efforts are being crowned at the fourth attempt, 30 years after he was toppled in a military coup in August 1985.
By 1 pm today, with results from 26 states and Abuja officially declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Buhari was leading the incumbent President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Goodluck Jonathan, with about a million votes.
With results from 10 other states, such as Bauchi, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Zamfara, Borno, Taraba, most of which are strongholds of Buhari, it is projected that Buhari will end up beating Jonathan with close to 4 million votes. Jonathan is only expected to have a strong showing in Edo and Delta states.
At the moment, the tallies from 26 states, show Buhari having 10,996,049 votes. Jonathan has 10,105, 683 votes.
The states are Ekiti, Ogun, Enugu, Kogi, Osun, Ondo, Abuja, Oyo, Nasarawa, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Kwara, Kaduna, Anambra, Abia, Imo, Plateau, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Niger, Bayelsa, Gombe, Cross River, Rivers, Sokoto and Lagos.
Buhari did well in the North Western states and South Western states of Nigeria, while Jonathan kept tightly to his South South and South East fortress, completely shutting out Buhari, except in Imo, where Buhari scored 133,253 votes to Jonathan’s 559, 185.
Going by the results, both candidates have fulfilled the constitutional requirement of having 25 per cent in two thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
But the General from Daura in Katsina State appears poised to beat the incumbent on the plurality of votes.
His expected victory is historic. It is the first time that an opposition candidate would wrest power from an incumbent.
Buhari, who will soon be declared president-elect, is the candidate of a coalition of groups that in 2013 fused to become the All Progressives Congress. The new party was made up of Action Congress, with base in western Nigeria, the CPC, in northern Nigeria, a faction of APGA and a breakaway faction of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, who abandoned the PDP because of sharp disagreements with President Goodluck Jonathan, on the handling of the party and Nigeria’s affairs.
Nigeria’s president-elect was born in Daura, Katsina state on 17 December, 1942.
After graduation at Government College in Katsina in 1961, Buhari joined the army and rose to become a Major-General. He served as Governor of the North East state, petroleum minister and became Nigeria’s military leader after the 31 December coup that toppled the civilian administration of Shehu Shagari.
In August 1985, Buhari was toppled in another coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida.
In retirement, he served as chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund under the Abacha regime.
When Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, General Buhari offered himself for service thrice before now, but he was rejected at the polls.
The man with a reputation for anti-corruption and discpline and a near ascetic life has finally got his mission fulfilled.
INEC Result
STATE JONATHAN (PDP) BUHARI (APC)
LAGOS 632,327 792,460
OGUN 207,950 308,290
ONDO 299,889 251,368
OSUN 249,929 383,603
OYO 303,376 528,620
KWARA 132,602 302,146
NIGER 149,222 667,678
KEBBI 100,972 568,020
ZAMFARA 80,781 349,868
SOKOTO 152,199 671,926
KADUNA 484,085 1,127,760
FCT 157,195 146,399
KOGI 149,987 264,851
EDO 286,869 208,469
DELTA 205,256 5,331
BAYELSA 361,209 5,194
RIVERS 1,468,075 69,238
IMO 559,185 133,253
ANAMBRA 660,762 17,926
EBONYI 322,663 19,518
BENUE 73,738 86,030
NASSARAWA 273,460 236,838
PLATEAU 549,615 429,140
KANO 215,779 1,903,999
KATSINA 98,937 1,345,441
JIGAWA 142,904 885,988
BAUCHI 113,912 686,646
TARABA 171,570 125,340
ENUGU 553,003 14,157
CROSS RIVER 414,863 28,368
AKWA IBOM 953,304 58,411
GOMBE 96,873 361,245
ABIA 368,303 13,394
YOBE 19,010 282,504
ADAMAWA 156,000 226,735
BORNO 26,098 747,094
EKITI 176,466 120,331