Nigerians Elect Muslim Former Military Dictator As President
April 1, 2015 - 4:14 AM
Nigerian men look at the morning newspapers and discuss the partial election results released, at a newspaper stand in Kano, northern Nigeria on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Muhammadu Buhari defeated President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, by 15.4 million votes to 12.9 million, according to the official electoral commission.
Buhari is the first presidential candidate to unseat an incumbent at the ballot box, including in the four elections since Nigeria ditched military government in 1999.
Jonathan phoned his rival to congratulate him, a move Nigerian media commentators said was unprecedented and evidently designed to prevent a violent response by anyone unhappy with the outcome. He urged his supporters not to mourn, but to celebrate “a legacy of democratic freedom, transparency, economic growth, and free and fair elections.”
“As I have always affirmed, nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian. The unity, stability and progress of our dear country is more important than anything else,” he said.
Buhari’s All Progressive Congress (APC) party issued a statement calling on its supporters to celebrate in a calm and sober manner.
Supporters celebrate the anticipated victory of presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna, northern Nigeria on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Nigeria has a history of elections marred by acrimony and violence. Hundreds of people, mostly in the north, were killed during protests after Jonathan defeated Buhari in elections in 2011.
The election campaign in Nigeria, whose economy surpassed that of South Africa’s last year to become Africa’s biggest, took place against a backdrop of a deadly jihad waged by Boko Haram in the predominantly Muslim north.
Originally scheduled for February 14, the elections were controversially postponed until March 28, with Jonathan citing security threats. (Voting was extended into a second day in some areas after technical problems arose with a new computerized voting system.)
One of Boko Haram’s stated goals is to extend the Islamic legal code and its “hudud” punishments – which can include the death penalty for apostasy, and stoning, flogging and amputations for other offenses – across the nation.
Muslims make up roughly 50 percent of Nigeria’s population of 155 million while Christians account for about 40 percent.
Since the end of military rule in 1999, 12 northern states (out of a total of 36) have implemented shari’a.
In August 2001, Buhari was quoted by the Guardian of Lagos as pledging to support the rollout of shari’a across all 36 states.
“It is a legal responsibility God has given us within the context of one Nigeria to continue to uphold the practice of shari’a wholeheartedly ... and to educate non-Moslems that they have nothing to fear,” the daily quoted him as saying in a speech to a newly-established National Convention of the Supreme Council for Shari’a in Nigeria.
“I will continue to show openly and inside me, the total commitment to shari’amovement that is sweeping all over Nigeria, God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the shari’a in the country.”
Buhari later walked back his stance, and in a campaign statement last month declared that he has “no personal religious agenda.”
“I will not condone any initiative that seeks to promote one religion over the other,” he said. “Neither I, nor my party, or any member of my team has any desire or plan to Islamize or Christianize Nigeria.”
Buhari said Nigeria’s constitution does not permit a state religion.
“Just as no one can make any customary or any other religious law the law of Nigeria, so shari’a cannot therefore be the law of Nigeria.”
After the military seized power in a coup in 1983 Buhari served as head of state for 19 months, a period marked by repressive decrees and a crackdown on press freedom, before he was himself toppled by other military officers.
While campaigning this year, the 72 year-old retired major-general emphasized his military credentials and vowed to step up the battle against Boko Haram.
The insurgency waged by the Islamist group, which last month pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), cost more than 6,000 civilian lives in 2014.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/nigerians-elect-muslim-former-military-dictator-president
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