The former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari told AFP Tuesday he was
"very confident" of victory as vote counting after a tense general
election showed him pulling ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) opposition party declared
victory and celebrations began among party grandees in the capital,
Abuja.
If confirmed, it would be the first democratic change of power in the
history of Africa's most populous country and cap a remarkable return
for the 72-year-old who headed a military regime in the 1980s.
With 34 out of 37 results in, the APC had won 19 states, while
Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was on 14, plus the Federal
Capital Territory of Abuja.
"This is the first time the opposition has voted a government out of
power in Nigeria's history," said APC spokesman Lai Mohammed.
Buhari was more than 2.75 million votes ahead of 57-year-old Jonathan,
after winning Yobe and Adamawa, which have been among the hardest hit
by the bloody, six-year Boko Haram insurgency.
The retired army general won the key prize of Lagos in the southwest
but at one point his lead was cut to 500,000 votes after landslide
victories for Jonathan in his southern Delta homeland.
The vote was the closest election contest ever in Africa's biggest
economy which has a population of 173 million.
The opposition leader, making his fourth run at the presidency, has
been buoyed by frustration over endemic corruption, criticism over
Jonathan's handling of Boko Haram and a stronger opposition.
- Sit-down protest -
There was a brief protest by Jonathan's PDP before the count resumed on Tuesday.
Former Niger Delta minister Godsday Orubebe accused elections chief
Attahiru Jega of being "partial" and "selective".
Orubebe claimed Jega had refused to investigate PDP complaints about
big wins by Buhari in northern states but had launched a probe into
claims by the APC of irregularities in Rivers.
Jega said later: "I don't believe that the allegations are substantial
enough to require the cancellation or rescheduling of the elections in
Rivers state. We will take the results."
But Buhari -- who seized power in December 1983 until he was ousted in
a coup in August 1985 -- was encouraged by tallies from two northern
states, where he stretched his lead over Jonathan compared to four
years ago.
In Kano, Buhari defeated Jonathan by nearly 1.7 million votes after
besting the president by roughly one million in 2011.
And in Kaduna, where the two ran neck-and-neck in 2011, Buhari won by
650,000 votes.
International observers gave broadly positive reactions to the conduct
of the vote, despite late delivery of election materials and technical
glitches with new voter authentication devices.
Nigeria's Transition Monitoring Group, which had observers across the
country, said: "These issues did not systematically disadvantage any
candidate or party."
- US, UK warning -
The PDP and the APC on Sunday traded allegations of vote rigging and
other irregularities, raising the possibility of a legal challenge to
the results.
Violence has often flared in previous Nigerian elections after the
winner is announced and the United States and Britain warned against
any "interference" with the count.
"So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the
process," US Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign
Secretary Philip Hammond said in a joint statement Monday.
"But there are disturbing indications that the collation process --
where the votes are finally counted -- may be subject to deliberate
political interference."
Kayode Idowu, spokesman for the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), told AFP that there was "no evidence of political
interference".
- Fears, curfew -
Kaduna, one of the areas worst-affected by violence four years ago
when some 1,000 people were killed in post-election clashes, was said
to be calm.
Awwal Abdullahi Aliyu, president of the Northern People Unity and
Reconciliation Union, warned that places such as Kaduna remained a
powderkeg and could "catch fire", particularly if electoral fraud is
suspected in any ruling party victory.
Some 2,000 women protesting against the conduct of the elections were
teargassed Monday as they tried to converge on the local electoral
commission offices in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
The protest over alleged vote rigging by the PDP -- and a
counter-protest demanding the results hold -- forced the Rivers state
government to impose an overnight curfew.
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