Opposition supporters in Nigeria barely slept last night as their candidate former Military ruler Muhammadu Buhari clinched a tightly contested presidency.
Buhari hailed the elections terming it a vote for change.
He also thanked his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan for accepting defeat and terming him a worthy opponent who relinquished power peacefully.
He won the election by a margin of 2 million votes.
Observers have praised the election as being largely peaceful despite a number of challenges that faced it ranging from electronic to allegations of fraud.
Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, has become the first opposition candidate to win a presidential election in Nigeria.
The former military ruler said: “We have proven to the world that we are people who have embraced democracy. We have put the one-party state behind us.”
The presidential election, a vote punctuated by sporadic violence and technical glitches, nonetheless represented the first democratic transfer of power in the oil-rich African nation.
Nigeria’s election commission confirmed the outcome in favor of the former army general Buhari late Tuesday, after nearly all votes had been tallied in a delayed count.
The margin of victory – Buhari got 15.4 million votes to Jonathan’s 13.3 million – was enough to prevent any legal challenge. “You voted for change and now change has come,” Buhari said.
Jonathan will officially hand over power on May 29.
Former army general Buhari ruled Nigeria from 1983 to 1985 after seizing power in a coup. Ousted himself in another military takeover led by General Ibrahim Babangida in August 1985, he declared himself a convert to democracy and has since run and lost in several previous elections.
