Johannesburg — Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was Tuesday declared the controversial winner of Saturdays election; but his political rivals have refused to accept the results of the disputed poll or concede defeat.
Local and international observers have questioned the conduct of the election in some parts of the country, citing ballot box stuffing and other serious irregularities.
In a televised address after his electoral victory was declared, Obasanjo said "I humbly accept the challenge to consolidate the gains of the last four years, while charting the course to a greater destiny for our nation."
But Nigerians will be under no illusions that although the president is set to start a second four-year term in office, he does so under a dark cloud, in a tense atmosphere and with a potentially bruising political battle on his hands.
Late Tuesday, after a long wait, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) announced that Obasanjo - presidential candidate of the governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) - had taken nearly 62 percent of the vote.
This figure was almost twice as high as that of his nearest competitor, retired General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Buhari has already rejected the results. The ANPP party chairman, Don Etiebet, accused Inec of conniving with Obasanjos government to manipulate the vote.
Good sportsmanship
"Good politicians should be good sportsmen, showing magnanimity and humility in victory and gallantry and good naturedness in defeat," said Obasanjo. He concluded that "Nigeria has come of age, I stretch my hand of fellowship to all my co-contestants, losers and winners, electorate, men and women - join hands in the task of rebuilding and developing Nigeria."
But the runner-up and his supporters are likely to consider the presidents suggestion that Buhari is a bad loser, as an insult and slap in the face. It appears that they are not prepared to sit quietly and allow Obasanjo to enjoy his electoral triumph.
Some analysts are predicting outright rebellion, particularly since Buhari warned of protests in advance of the presidential ballot if it was not conducted fairly. But whether there is really an appetite at street level for such a strategy remains unclear.
The Obasanjo victory is unlikely to be seen as an upset. It was widely predicted in the weeks before the election and an exit poll on Saturday conducted by This Day newspaper pointed to a 55% victory for the incumbent president. For many commentators, while the size of the victory may be suspect, a poll without blemish might nonetheless have returned Obasanjo to office.
Nonetheless the scenario of violence and instability in Africas most populous nation, with its long history of military intervention when civilians fail to agree, is troubling
Nigeria is struggling to showcase its democratic credentials by successfully transferring power from one constitutionally elected government to another.
Buhari and other opposition leaders earlier contested the results of the April 12 parliamentary elections, where Obasanjos party swept to victory in both the lower house and Senate of the national assembly. The opposition alleged cheating and threatened unspecified "mass action".
After Saturdays presidential ballot, the same opposition parties claimed widespread vote fraud which they said called into question the legitimacy and credibility of the elections.
And, as the opposition loudly refused to endorse the poll results, members of Buharis and other parties made a dramatic protest in Abuja on Tuesday evening.
After a meeting with Inec, they marched onto the podium in the main hall at the Electoral Commissions headquarters. Etiebet shouted "This was no election, no election at all".
Witnesses, including journalists waiting for Inec to proclaim Obasanjos re-election, reported that confusion reigned.
The ANPP chairman told reporters that opposition parties had declined to give their approval to the results of the presidential poll. "We refused to sign the results sheet on the grounds that the results did not reflect the wishes of the people," Etiebet announced from the podium.
But the opposition has not specified what action it might take. An announcement is promised for later in the day on Wednesday.
Reuters reported that police escorted the Inec chairman, Abel Guobadia, away from the building - apparently for his own safety. Guobadia has repeated that he stands by Inecs results and has challenged opposition parties to provide evidence of alleged vote rigging. Inec says legal channels exist for those who wish formally to dispute the results.
Akin Osuntokun, a media spokesman for the Obasanjo camp said the opposition politicians had rejected the results because they lost. "These are people who are trying to drag their country backwards," said Osuntokun.
As well as its runaway victory in the presidential poll, Obasanjos PDP captured 27 of 36 state governments. The ANPP gained 7 and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) managed to hold onto one.
Catalogue of criticism
Saturdays presidential and state governorship elections in Nigeria did not receive a ringing endorsement from observers either. Indeed, there was a catalogue of criticism.
The main Nigerian monitoring group, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) said their delegations to various parts of the country observed widespread electoral fraud and irregularities in the conduct of the elections.
"There were scores of alleged fraud in many states across the country, often with collusion of election officials and security personnel," said TMG Chairman, Mr. Festus Okoye.
The Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) said they were concerned by "ballot stuffing, rigging, voter intimidation, violence and fraud," especially in the volatile oil-producing Niger Delta as well as in the south-east.
The International Republican Institute (IRI), linked to US President George W Bushs governing Republican Party, talked about "outright or attempted fraud" in some instances.
The European Unions observer mission reported that the polls were "marred by serious irregularities and fraud." The EU team said that in six states won by Obasanjos PDP, vote rigging was so widespread that "we say they (the results) are simply not credible."
An EU observers statement declared that "the presidential and a number of gubernatorial elections were marred by serious irregularities and fraud. In a certain number of states, minimum standards for democratic elections were not met."
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The head of the EU monitoring group, Max van den Berg, said these issues must be addressed, otherwise democracy in Nigeria was in trouble.
The assessment by Commonwealth observers, led by former Tanzanian foreign minister and long-time secretary general of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Salim Ahmed Salim, was more positive. "In most of Nigeria, a genuine and largely successful effort was made to enable the people to vote freely," said an interim Commonwealth statement.
But in an interview with the BBC, Salim acknowledged some voting irregularities in a number of places, saying: "We have encountered a lot of difficulties in some areas." This was echoed in the Commonwealth statement which said "proper electoral processes appear to have broken down and there was intimidation" in such states as Enugu, Imo in the east and Rivers in the south.
But Salim appeared determined to remain upbeat. "The whole of Nigeria has come out strongly (to vote) in their millions. They have been remarkable," he said. In most of the country the polling was peaceful. Most Nigerians have therefore demonstrated that they want democracy to be sustained. So, I think the people of Nigeria are the winners."
Salim advised the losers to seek redress through the courts in line with Nigerias constitution, warning that "the opposition and the government have a Herculean task before them."
Sound counsel perhaps, but those who feel they and their political candidates were robbed of electoral victory may be disinclined to follow such a peaceable path.
