A winner and a hero By Ochereome Nnanna

THIS is the dawn of a new era. It is a time that every Nigerian should celebrate, whether they supported President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari and the in-coming ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).Congratulations to all of us. This election has produced a winner, Buhari; and a hero, Jonathan.

Buhari-and-Jonathan

Some have called it the best election Nigeria ever had. Even if you have your reservations over the regional gang-ups and surreptitious desertions that produced the eventual winner, or the apparent lopsided performance of the card reader in the North (especially Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna and Bauchi) and South (Anambra, Rivers, Lagos, and so on) as complained by Elder Godsday Orubebe) that is now inconsequential. We have a new President-elect, and his name is General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.

Buhari clinched a total of 15,424,921 votes to beat Jonathan, who scored 12,853,162 votes. The APC candidate won in twenty one states and secured the required 25 per cent of votes cast in 26 states, while Jonathan won in 15 states and 25 per cent in 24 states. Jonathan won in all the three former Regions (East, West and North) thus asserting the national spread of the PDP, while Buhari got elected based on overwhelming victory in the North and West.

So, why do we say this was the most successful election in Nigeria’s history? If we bear in mind that Nigeria’s disintegration was predicted to take place after these elections in 2015; if we consider the sabre-rattling that preceded the campaigns, in which the APC and its leaders threatened that dogs and baboon “will soak in blood

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