Muhammadu Buhari Wins Nigeria’s Presidential Election

Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has been declared winner of the recent Presidential election having polled 58 percent of the votes.

The announcement was made Wednesday morning by Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Buhari, 76, who has been President of the Western African country and Africa’s biggest economies sought for a second term centering his campaign on the fight against corruption and rehabilitating road and railway infrastructure.

Buhari, of the ruling All Progressives Congress Party got 15.2 million votes ahead of his main challenger,, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who got 11.3 million votes (41 percent).

The polling on February 23 had been pushed a week further by the electoral body on grounds that it needed more time to prepare.

Days following the polls were characterized by violence at least 47 people killed, according to the Situation Room, a monitoring organisation linking various civil society groups.

Some deaths resulted from clashes between groups allied to the leading parties and the police over the theft of ballot boxes and allegations of vote fraud.

Media reports have placed the death toll since the election campaigns in October last year at 260 people.

Meanwhile, the PDP, Atiku’s party on Tuesday alleged electoral malpractices, including vote-rigging. PDP spokesman Tanimu Turaki claimed data from voter card readers had been altered and said there should be an “immediate halt to the ongoing collation of results”.

Abubakar had also called for results from four states to be cancelled.

As has been the case in his first term as President of Nigeria, a country with 190 million people, Buhari will be faced with an uphill task to restore security threatened by armed groups, tackle corruption and grow an economy still recovering from a recent recession.