LAGOS APRIL 1ST (URHOBOTODAY)- The Morthern part of Nigeria erupted in jubilation and celebration as Chairman of Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Atahiru Jega declared APC Presidential candidate Gen Mohammadu Buhari the President-elect of the Federal republic of Nigeria.
In the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram, young people spilled into streets where they danced, played music, honked car horns and chanted “only Buhari” in the Hausa language. Rowdy celebrations were also staged in several other northern cities and Abuja.
This were mode of celebration in most Northern cities when former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari won Nigeria’s presidency, beating Goodluck Jonathan in the first defeat of an incumbent since independence from the U.K. in 1960.
Buhari, a 72-year-old northern Muslim who heads the All Progressives Congress, won 52.4 percent of votes cast in Africa’s biggest oil producer, according to electoral authorities. Jonathan received 43.7 percent in the March 28-29 election.
Jonathan said in an e-mailed statement he had sent his “best wishes” to Buhari after a largely peaceful vote. “I thank all Nigerians once again for the great opportunity I was given to lead this country,” he said.
“It’s a massive, massive democratic revolution for Nigeria,” Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center, which monitored the election, said by phone from Abuja. “It’s a boost to accountability, to the power of the people to bring a government to account through the ballots.”
Buhari faces the tasks of ending a six-year-old war against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram that’s killed more than 13,000 people and restoring investor confidence in an economy that’s reeling from a 50 percent drop in the price of oil, its main export, since June.
Market Reaction
“We are putting our feet on the first rung of the ladder of democracy,” Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, managing director of the Center for Public Policy Alternatives in Lagos, the commercial capital, said by phone. “We have been able to change a government that did not meet our expectations.”
Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party has governed Nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999.
Yields on the nation’s $500 million of dollar bonds due July 2023 fell 28 basis points to 6.21 percent as of 5:38 p.m. in London, the lowest level since Dec. 9. Rates on the notes dropped below those of Kenya’s $2 billion of debt securities due June 2014 for the first time since Dec. 11, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange Index rose to the highest level since Jan. 6 before the final results were announced, paring first-quarter losses to 8.4 percent, still the worst performer among 14 African indexes tracked by Bloomberg.
Rights Abuses
A retired major general who lost three previous elections, Buhari has led Nigeria before, when he overthrew a democratically elected government on Dec. 31, 1983. He built a reputation among his backers as a ruler who cracked down on corruption and crime before being ousted by the army 20 months later.
His detractors say his government was remembered for human rights abuses, with hundreds of politicians, businessmen and journalists jailed.
“No one truly knows what it will look like under a democratic system,” Manji Cheto, a London-based vice-president at consultancy Teneo Intelligence, said by phone. “He has a reputation of incorruptibility in a country where this attribute is believed to be a rarity for individuals occupying top positions. What remains to be seen is whether his personal integrity will have a positive impact on his government.”
Oil Price
During the campaign, Buhari pledged to clamp down on corruption, boost average annual growth to 10 percent and create at least 1 million jobs a year.
The decline in the price of oil, source of 90 percent of the West African nation’s foreign-exchange income and more than two-thirds of government revenue, will reduce the economic growth rate to 4.8 percent this year from 6.1 percent in 2014, the International Monetary Fund said in a report Monday. The naira has weakened 18 percent against the dollar in the past six months, the steepest drop of 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Nigeria is ranked 136 of 175 countries in Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, on par with Russia and Iran.
Fitch Ratings cut Nigeria’s credit-rating outlook to negative on Monday, citing the drop in oil prices and the tight election contest, while affirming the country’s BB- rating, three steps below investment grade.
Rivers State
Former militants in the oil-rich Niger River delta, Jonathan’s home ground, had threatened before the vote to stoke unrest if Buhari won.
In the oil-industry hub of Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers state where Jonathan won a decisive victory, banks stayed closed and the streets were quiet as residents headed home ahead of a dawn-to-dusk curfew after Buhari’s supporters had demonstrated against alleged vote rigging in the state.
A successful change in power bodes well for Africa’s largest economy, said Bismarck Rewane, chief executive officer of Financial Derivatives Co.
“The victory will send the right signal to the nation’s leadership,” he said by phone from Lagos, the commercial capital. “There will be massive inflow of foreign investment.”
BLOOMBERG