{"id":183043,"date":"2015-03-31T20:03:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T01:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/03\/31\/goodluck-jonathan-defeated-in-nigeria\/"},"modified":"2015-03-31T20:03:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T01:03:00","slug":"goodluck-jonathan-defeated-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/03\/31\/goodluck-jonathan-defeated-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodluck Jonathan Defeated in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a first for the west African nation, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-32139858\">an incumbent President has been defeated in a bid for reelection<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a good thing, because it indicates the development of a more robust political culture, as well as indicating a relatively free and fair election.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the man who won, Muhammadu Buhari, was the military ruler of the nation in the mid-1980s following a coup:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari has become the first opposition candidate to win a presidential election in Nigeria.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan telephoned Gen Buhari, 72, on Tuesday night to congratulate him and concede defeat.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Unofficial voting tallies put Gen Buhari more than two million votes ahead of his rival.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Observers have generally praised the election, though there have been allegations of fraud.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">&#8220;I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word,&#8221; Mr Jonathan said in a statement.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">He said he had conveyed his &#8220;best wishes&#8221; to Mr Buhari, and urged &#8220;those who may feel aggrieved to follow due process&#8230; in seeking redress&#8221;.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">A spokesman for Gen Buhari&#8217;s All Progressives Congress (APC) party praised Mr Jonathan, saying: &#8220;He will remain a hero for this move. The tension will go down dramatically.&#8221;<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Gen Buhari&#8217;s supporters took to the streets in APC strongholds, including the northern cities of Kano and Kaduna, to sing and dance in celebration.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The concession by President Jonathan is a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>It shortcuts the many challenges to the legitimacy of the elections which are legion in that part of a world, and it allows for a smooth transition.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s hoping that this will allow for moves to reduce corruption in the infamously crooked government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a first for the west African nation, an incumbent President has been defeated in a bid for reelection. This is a good thing, because it indicates the development of a more robust political culture, as well as indicating a relatively free and fair election. On the other hand, the man who won, Muhammadu Buhari, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1095,1000,978],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-elections","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}