By Taiwo Farotimi
From the outset, the race for the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was believed to be between two political gladiators. Though there are 73 contestants for the seat, Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, are the two contenders expected to slug it out in the contest that was re-scheduled to Saturday, February 23.
As the announcement of results at the National Collation Centre gets close to the end, with about 10 states to go, there are indications that President Buhari will emerge winner of the poll. Results show that he is leading in the popular figures from the total votes cast and where he lost, mostly narrowly, to his opponent, the margin gives him the opportunity to have the required 25% of the total votes cast in each of the states. Therefore, he is projected to have the 25% of votes in two-third of the 36 states of the federation, which will be 24 states. From the about 27 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, already announced, President Buhari is looking very good for second term. That should put Nigeria on a stable political stand, with the belief that some of the policies and programmes of the Buhari administration will continue without hitch. Though, his administration may also have to consider certain criticisms about his policies to perfect certain things that are being done.
To start with the peaceful conduct of the elections, safe for the crisis, including fatal attacks, in some states, brought relief for many who expected that there will be crisis during the elections going by the demonstration of desperation in the speeches of some politicians. But the heavy policing on Election Day must have gone a long way to curb the violence, coupled with the strong warning by President Buhari that anyone caught snatching ballot boxes would be doing so at a risk to his life. Though that statement drew some condemnation, it probably did the trick, because the military also said it was ready to ensure that no sharp practice was carried out during the exercise.
Some miscreants did attempt disruption of the polls in some places and were resisted by voters. In fact, except in some states like Rivers and Bayelsa, the security was commended for general acts of civility throughout the exercise. Though there were situations where some security personnel were said to have looked the other way while electoral fraud was being perpetrated.
By and large, the exercise may have gone well. That is at the level of the conduct of election proper. Already the opposition PDP is raising alarm over alleged manipulation of the figures. It will be seen how that gets argued as the days roll by.
But from the results released from the states so far, President Buhari is maintaining a comfortable lead. He has in his kitty states like Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Ogun, Lagos, Kaduna, Bauchi, Osun, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Gombe, Kogi and Niger, while Abubakar’s include Adamawa, Oyo, Ondo, Ebonyi, Anambra, Edo, Imo and Benue states.
The declaration of results is still on-going but having got the required two-third in almost all the 26 or so states that have been announced and leading by a fairly good margin, he could safely be predicted as the contestant more likely to emerge winner.
