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Nigeria: Muhammadu Buhari nominated to run against Goodluck Jonathan
Former soldier and military leader Muhammadu Buhari will challenge President Goodluck Jonathan at February presidential elections in Nigeria, according to results Thursday from party primaries.
The February 14 vote is expected to be the most closely contested since decades of military rule ended in 1999 in Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest oil producer.
Jonathan was the sole candidate at the governing party primaries though his election early Thursday flouted an unwritten party rule that the presidency should rotate between a Christian southerner, like himself, and a northern Muslim.
Dozens of ruling party legislators have defected over the issue, costing Jonathan’s party its majority in the lower house of Parliament.
Nevertheless, Jonathan told party faithful Thursday that “today we are stronger, bigger, and more in tune with the yearnings of our people.”
Buhari, a Muslim northerner who overthrew a democratically elected president in 1983 and then himself was deposed in a coup in 1985, handily won primaries of a four-party opposition coalition, according to results Thursday.
The opposition accuses Jonathan, 57, of failing to contain the al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram terror campaign that has killed thousands and driven many people from their homes in the country’s north eastern region.
It will be the fourth time at the presidential polls for Buhari, a 71-year-old former army general who is touted as more likely to succeed in the fight against the Islamists. Buhari also is praised for fighting corruption while he was in power.
Alluding to that in his acceptance speech to party delegates, Buhari said “I am not a rich person. I cannot give you a fistful of dollars or naira to purchase your support.”
He accused Jonathan of incompetence, saying “Instead of resolving problems, this government multiplies and manufactures them.”
Jonathan is accused of fueling corruption in an administration that has confronted one multimillion-dollar scandal after another.
In his acceptance speech, Jonathan said Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) has grown from US$35.9 billion when his party came to power in 1999 to US$510 billion today.
Source: Associated Press