Nigeria’s opposition leader Buhari claims victory

A newspaper vendor sells a copy of “The Nation” newspaper to a buyer at a newspaper stand in Kano, northern Nigeria Tuesday, March 31, 2015. The second day of vote counting in Nigeria’s bitterly contested presidential vote started late on Tuesday and electoral officials hope to announce later in the day who will govern Africa’s richest and biggest nation. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

 

March 31, 2015

Nigeria’s opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Buhari has won Nigeria’s presidential election but fears his victory could be stolen by “tricks” from the incumbent government. In the northern city of Kaduna, a spontaneous celebration of Buhari’s followers sprang up. Young men on motor scooters performed wheelies as hundreds of youths chanted and cars honked their horns in support.
If Buhari victory holds and President Goodluck Jonathan steps down, it would mark the first time in Nigeria’s history that an opposition party has democratically taken control of the country from the ruling party.
Results from 31 states and the small Federal Capital Territory amounting to some 22 million votes showed Buhari leading by nearly 3 million votes.
Buhari, an ex-general who first won power three decades ago in a military coup, closed in on a historic election victory, maintaining a hefty lead in the vote count in Africa’s most populous nation.
Buhari crucially carried Lagos state, Nigeria’s commercial hub with the largest number of voters, according to results announced Tuesday, after taking crushing wins in three states in the Muslim north, where he is revered.
The austere and strict retired general, who says he is a convert to democracy, for the first time won states in the southwest and even took one third of votes in a southeastern state, an unprecedented development that some say reflects more of an anti-Jonathan than a pro-Buhari sentiment.
The counting was disrupted Tuesday by a representative of Jonathan’s party who protested that the proceedings were partial to Buhari. “We have lost confidence in you. You are partial,” shouted former Cabinet minister Peter Godsday Orubebe to the chairman of the electoral commission counting the vote. The opposition has also complained that electoral officials are partisan.
The winning candidate must take more than half of all votes and at least 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory at Abuja.

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After four presidential bids, Buhari claims victory CCTV’s Susan Mwongeli provides more on Muhammudu Buhari.

After four presidential bids, Buhari claims victory

After four presidential bids, Buhari claims victory

CCTV's Susan Mwongeli provides more on Muhammudu Buhari.

Yinka Adegoke, Africa Editor of Quartz on the election resuit

For more on Buhari’s victory and what it means for Nigeria moving forward, CCTV spoke to Yinka Adegoke. He’s the Africa editor for Quartz, a global business news publication.