UPDATES AS INEC CONCLUDES COUNT: #NIGERIADECIDES2015
MARCH 31ST 2015
17:30 (5:30 PM) Nigerian Time
With all but one State left to be declared and General Muhammadu Buhari and APC leading by over 3 million votes the incumbent President Johnathan concedes defeat and calls to congratulate President elect, General Muhammadu Buhari. The final results clearly show that over-optimistic speculators were not 'over-optimistic" after all but had intuitively deciphered the mood of voting patterns and were speculating based on these intuitions.
By conceding defeat, outgoing President Johnathan has set the mood for a peaceful transition on May 29th 2015, drawing the curtains on an election which has already made history. This is the first time in Nigeria's political history that an opposition party will be declared winners at the Presidential elections. This is also the first time digital technology has been incorporated into the voting process in Nigeria. Also mking history, General Muhammadu Buhari is the most consistent Presidential contestant (4 times in a row) edging out Chief Awolowo (3 times) who was generally regarded as "the best President Nigeria NEVER had. President elect Muhammadu Buhari will also go down in Nigeria's history as the first man to be elected to the office of President only on the fourth time of asking. These facts should indeed set political precedents for the length and breath of Africa.
The impact of Social media on this election is worth a whole lot of study. The vibrant technology driven clan took advantage of the networking capabilities of Facebook and Twitter to massively tip the scales of balance on opinions, perception and ultimately the call to action. This should be another hugh precedent for African countries who are lacking the person to person network to inspire and initiate regime change. Employing the Nigerian Twitter and Facebook examples opposition parties in other African countries can muster the network desired to go out on election day and take the desired action of voting out a non-performing incumbent. The perseverance of voters on election day was outstanding. In some polling units people brought their own generators to light up the environment as polling officers did initial sorting of votes critically reducing all avenues of election mal-practice.
Indeed the lessons that this 2015 Presidential elections presents to Africa are numerous and may require careful study.
In General Buhari's Katsina state and many other States of Nigeria the happiness of the common man is visible in the streets.
The Nation smiles as the collective will of the people triumph. April 11th is the day each State seeks out who will captain the ship of state for the next four years. Again we watch.


22:06 (10:06PM Nigerian Time

BREAKING
The last State Borno, has just been declared won by General Buhari's APC.
INEC has retired till tomorrow to officialy declare the winner of Nigeria's 2015 Presidetial elections.

23:30 (11:30PM )Nigerian Time
Corrigendum: INEC has not vacated the declaration centre. The Independent Electoral Commission is currently verifying all results submitted with a view to making the final declaration immediately it is through with verifications

UPDATES AS INEC COUNTS: RIVERS STATE FACT FINDING UPDATE.

UPDATES AS INEC COUNTS: NIGERIADECIDES2015
March 31st 2015
12:45 PM
INEC Chairman Professor Atahiru Jega stated at the declaration centre just before formally receiving the Rivers State Results that the Committee sent to Rivers State returned earlier today . He said waiting for the committe's return contributed partly to the late convening at the declaration centre today.
Prof. Jega said that the mandate given the committee was to determine whether elections did not hold in Rivers State as alleged by the APC and whether there was substantial reason to cancel the elections in Rivers State. Professor Jega reporting to the house stated that within the time frame given the committee their findings indicated that contrary to the allegation by APC, elections did indeed take place in Rivers State. On whether there was substantial grounds to cancel the elections in Rivers State, the committee returned that there was NOT substantial grounds to cancel the elections.
Immediately after reporting to the house Prof Jega asked that the Rivers State results be read. Incidentally, the results read did show that APC won the Rivers State Presidential elections.

UPDATES AS INEC COUNTS : NIGERIADECIDES2015-- FINAL DAY COLLATION

UPDATES AS NIGERIADECIDES 2015
March 31st 2015
11:33 AM
Events at the collation /declaration centre rapidly degenerated into a fiercely heated protest as the PDP representative right there at the collation centre declared that the PDP has lost confidence in the proceedings.
In an extremely heated atmosphere the PDP representatives alleged that they have written protests letters on the election results in Kano, Kaduna and INEC did not take action on those protests whereas INEC did take actions on the protest by APC on the results from Rivers State. In reference INEC did actually send a fact finding committee to Rivers State. The heated affair held up proceeding for about 30 minutes.
Exhibiting a high level of statesmanship the INEC chairman camly and professionally addressed the issues raised. The INEC Chairman, Prof. Jega said the petitions from PDP were presented to his PA at collation centre which breaches the protocol of his office. Petitions are to be submitted to his Secretary at the INEC office, and such petition would then be brought forward to him . PDP did not follow procedure.
This development really points to frayed nerves and as vote declaration takes longer it is possible a few more 'burst-ups' may occur.

UPDATES AS INEC COUNTS VOTES: NIGERIADECIDES2015

UPDATES AS INEC COUNTS VOTES:
March 30th 2015:
23:22 (11:23PM) Nigerian Time
Vote counting and declaration of results in Nigeria's 2015 elections is no 'slam-dunk' . Counting of votes is still going on in some states and INEC is forced to retire once again for lack of results to declare. INEC'S Professor Jega says sitting will continue at 10:00 AM (Nigerian Time ) on Tuesday 31st March 2015.
A total of 18 states plus the Federal Capital territory Abuja have been declared so far: APC has succeeded in flipping the script on PDP as at last count,  on both absolute numbers and number of States won.
APC and General Muhammadu Buhari are leading with 8,520,436 votes and 10 States against PDP and President Goodluck Ebele Johnathan's 6,488,210 votes in 8 States plus the Federal Capital Territory. However in relation to the 25% in 2/3 of the States, President Johnathan's PDP has got its nose out in front leading with 25% in 15 States to General Buhari's 25% in 13 States.
Nationwide many have been glued to their TV sets while the dynamic, tech-driven clan are hugging their IPADS and smart phones. Twitter seems to be the 'happening' social media of the moment.
Generally on the ground , over-optimistic speculators who were predicting landslides for their parties are beginning to realize this may be a tight race to the very end. At the moment its anybody's guess -- too close to call may be the chant that takes us to bed tonight. Some analysts are however pointing that with more States from the South South yet to go there may yet be some disquiet in the APC camp.