{"id":381122,"date":"2011-04-17T23:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-17T23:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africa%e2%80%99s-beacon-of-democracy\/"},"modified":"2011-04-17T23:00:38","modified_gmt":"2011-04-17T23:00:38","slug":"presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential polls: Nigeria as Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"238\">\n<p><strong>BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR<\/strong><br \/>SURROUNDED by countries inundated with bloody and crisis-laden democratic transition programmes, Nigerians on Saturday demonstrated their willingness to make their country one of Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Many Nigerians from all walks of life \u2013 the old, the blind, the frail, the sick and even adults, who had never voted all their lives, defied the scorching heat in most parts of the country to vote in Saturday\u2019s presidential polls, the seventh in the country\u2019s electoral history.<\/p>\n<p>About 48 million voters or two-third of the 73 million registered voters took part in the election and the turnout is considered unprecedented in the history of presidential elections in the country. About 7.185 million voters took part in the December 12, 1959 elections.<\/p>\n<p>On August 11, 1979, the turnout was 16.85 million. The rest include: August 6, 1983 -25.43 million; June 12, 1993 -14.293 million; February 27, 1999 -30.280 million; April 19, 2003 \u2013 42.019 million and April 21, 2007 \u2013 35.398 million.<\/p>\n<p>If the polls terminate conclusively as expected, Nigeria would have waded successfully through her fourth successive transition programme (1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011), which compares favourably with the likes of Ghana (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008) and South (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010) that have held five successive civilian -to- civilian elections.<\/p>\n<p>Cote D\u2019Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Niger are among African countries that staged controversial presidential polls in recent times.<\/p>\n<p>Coming after months of preparations including a week extension, 15 men and a lady filed out for the polls, seeking the mandate of Nigerian voters to become the nation\u2019s fifth democratically elected head of state.<\/p>\n<p>The presidential polls, the fourth in a roll since 1999, had incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan (PDP), Maj General Muhammadu Buhari (CPC), Nuhu Ribadu (ACN) and Ibrahim Shekarau (ANPP), as front runners.<\/p>\n<div readability=\"7\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-149082\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2011\/04\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africa%E2%80%99s-beacon-of-democracy\/polls2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-149082\" title=\"polls2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ac94polls2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nigerians at a polling station<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Other contenders were Dele Momodu (NCP), John Dara (NTP), Chris Okotie (FDP), Ebiti Ndok (UNPD), Akpona Solomon (NMDP), Ambrose Owuru (HDP), Chris Nwaokobia (LDP), Iheanyichukwu Nnaji (BNP), Nwadike Chikezie (PMP), Rasheed Shitta-Bey (MPPP), Mahmud Waziri (PDC), Yahaya Ndu (ARP).<\/p>\n<p>Prof Pat Utomi of the SDMP and Prof Peter Nwangwu of the ADC had earlier withdrawn from the race. While Utomi left the stage for Shekarau, Nwangwu stepped down for Jonathan.<\/p>\n<p>Of the lot, Buhari, Okotie, Ambrose Owuru, Yahaya Ndu and Nnaji are veteran presidential candidates with most of them going for their third attempt.<\/p>\n<p>The rest, including President Jonathan, are first-time presidential candidates.<\/p>\n<p>As it were, only 16 of the nation\u2019s 63 political parties fielded flagbearers for the contest. And out of the remaining 47 parties, 45 had adopted Jonathan as their consensus candidate.<\/p>\n<p>The PDP went into the race as a clear favourite given<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR SURROUNDED by countries inundated with bloody and crisis-laden democratic transition programmes, Nigerians on Saturday demonstrated their willingness to make their country one of Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy. Many Nigerians from all walks of life \u2013 the old, the blind, the frail, the sick and even adults, who had never voted all their lives, defied the scorching heat in most parts of the country to vote in Saturday\u2019s presidential polls, the seventh in the country\u2019s electoral history. About 48 million voters or two-third of the 73 million registered voters took part in the election and the turnout is considered unprecedented in the history of presidential elections in the country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-381122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Presidential polls: Nigeria as Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Presidential polls: Nigeria as Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR SURROUNDED by countries inundated with bloody and crisis-laden democratic transition programmes, Nigerians on Saturday demonstrated their willingness to make their country one of Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy. Many Nigerians from all walks of life \u2013 the old, the blind, the frail, the sick and even adults, who had never voted all their lives, defied the scorching heat in most parts of the country to vote in Saturday\u2019s presidential polls, the seventh in the country\u2019s electoral history. About 48 million voters or two-third of the 73 million registered voters took part in the election and the turnout is considered unprecedented in the history of presidential elections in the country\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ac94polls2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Presidential polls: Nigeria as Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-17T23:00:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/\"},\"wordCount\":425,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ac94polls2.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/\",\"name\":\"Presidential polls: Nigeria as Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ac94polls2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-17T23:00:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ac94polls2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ac94polls2.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Presidential polls: Nigeria as Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/17\/presidential-polls-nigeria-as-africas-beacon-of-democracy\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Presidential polls: Nigeria as Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR SURROUNDED by countries inundated with bloody and crisis-laden democratic transition programmes, Nigerians on Saturday demonstrated their willingness to make their country one of Africa\u2019s beacon of democracy. 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