13th April, 2015
The party of Nigeria’s president-elect Muhammadu Buhari has won governorship elections in a majority of Nigeria’s 36 states, building its strength nationwide after a historic presidential win, official results showed Monday.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed at least 18 governor seats following Saturday’s closely-fought regional polls but could add to that tally with results from a handful of states still pending.
Some of the states won include Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Benue, Bauchi, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Adamawa, Kebbi, Plateau, Katsina, Kaduna, Yobe, Borno, Kwara, Zamfara.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had controlled the federal and most state governments since the end of military rule in 1999 but suffered major losses during Nigeria’s gripping 2015 election cycle.
Jonathan’s loss to Buhari in the presidential vote two weeks ago was the first ever democratic change of power at the federal level since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) described the regional vote as “relatively peaceful” while lamenting the 66 separate incidents of violence surrounding the polls.
Governors are influential figures in Nigeria, with near-total control of their states and collective power at a national level to bolster or check the presidency.
The 72-year-old Buhari will be sworn in on May 29 and his administration will likely be helped by having a majority of loyalist governors, including in the economic capital Lagos, where the APC was re-elected after a tough PDP challenge.
– Huge defeat in north –
The PDP was effectively wiped out in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, Buhari’s home region.
The governor of northeast Gombe state, Ibrahim Dankwambo, was the only PDP candidate elected in the region which has been hit hard by Boko Haram’s Islamist uprising.
Jonathan, a southern Christian, faced significant pressure to stand aside before the presidential vote and throw his support behind a PDP northern governor.
But he insisted on running again, a decision that many experts believe helped fuel the APC’s rise.
The PDP lost governorship elections in at least seven northern states it had previously controlled.
More unexpected was a string of losses for Jonathan’s party in the religiously divided Middle Belt region, including in conflict-scarred Plateau, where Jonathan beat Buhari in the general election.
The APC victories further highlighted widespread frustration after 16 years of PDP-dominated government, plagued by unrest and waves of corruption scandals, with much of the nation’s vast oil wealth lost through graft.
The regional vote also underscored the stunning rise of the APC, which was founded just two years ago in a coalition that grouped Buhari’s northern base with opposition parties that had support in the south.
Taraba state has not yet returned results but remains in the spotlight because it could return a female governor for the first time in Nigeria’s history in the shape of Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan.
– Flashpoint oil hub –
So far, the only state the PDP wrestled away from APC control was the southern, oil-producing hub of Rivers, where tension has been high throughout the election season.
Outgoing Rivers governor Rotimi Amaechi was elected on the PDP ticket in 2011 but defected to the APC in 2013.
The move in a state which borders Jonathan’s home of Bayelsa proved costly.
Jonathan won the presidential vote in Rivers with more than 95 percent support, while Amaechi’s hand-picked successor for the governor’s office, Dakuku Peterside, was trounced by the PDP’s Nyesom Wike, who won with 87 percent support.
There were widespread claims from the APC of PDP irregularities in voting in the state at the presidential election, leading to demonstrations and calls for a re-run.
INEC said Rivers saw the worst unrest during the regional polls, with 16 separate incidents of violence recorded.
The state’s information commissioner Ibim Semenitari said of the gubernatorial result: “What happened on Saturday was a rape of democracy. There was no election in Rivers.
“The PDP in connivance with INEC and the security agencies merely wrote figures which they have churned out to the public,” she told AFP.
She added: “We are going to challenge the results.”
Local PDP spokesman Emmanuel Okah, however, said: “The people have spoken. We urge the APC to accept the results in good faith.”