Violent Outbursts in Nigerian Northern Cities as Incumbent President Is Expected to Win Elections

Goodluck Jonathan (telegraph.co.uk)

Riots broke out in the northern part of Nigeria on Monday as a spokesman for incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan announced that he would emerge as the victor in the elections held on Sunday.

A member of Jonathan’s Campaign Council said that the president won 25 percent of the states, and the majority vote, which means that he is expected to win.

There is a running tally of the Independent National Electoral Commission posted on the institution’s website that says that in 33 out of 36 states and the capital city Jonathan is ahead of his main challenger Muhammadu Buhari.

The riots were attended by thousands of people in Kaduna state, where someone told the press that a church had been set on fire in Kaduna.

Muhammadu Buhari (meniru.blogspot.com)

Civil Rights Congress says that violent protests were also recorded in Niger state, where gunshots were heard, the army was in the streets and the business men shut their shops. There are reports of dead and injured.

In order to avoid the runoffs, Jonathan must get at least a quarter of the vote in two-thirds of the 36 states and the capital.

Nigerians voted on Saturday for their president after the parliamentary elections held a week before, engulfed in violence and accusations of rigging elections.

Jonathan is supported by the Christians and animists in the south, whereas Buhari is supported by northern Muslim communities.

The elections on Saturday were calm, with sporadic violent outbursts, but they intensified as soon as preliminary results were announced.

The Nigerian electoral system is underlined by an arrangement meant to keep a perfect balance between Muslims and Christians.

At the heart of this arrangement lies the idea of rotating the presidents so that the presidency may be exercised in turns by members of the two religious communities.

Jonathan is believed to have broken this arrangement because the former president, Umaru Yar’Adua, had not completed the term, on behalf of the Muslim community, so many thought that Jonathan should not have run for a new term because it was the turn of Muslim candidate to win.

Umaru Yar’Adua died in 2010, when Jonathan became automatically acting president until new elections could be held.