Retired Gen Olusegun Obasanjo was yesterday declared the new civilian president of Nigeria, 20 years after he left power as the nation's military ruler. Gen Obasanjo won a crushing victory, taking 18.73 million votes to 11.11 million for his opponent, the former finance minister, Mr Olu Falae, according to results announced by Justice Ephraim Akpata, head of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Gen Obasanjo took 18,738,154 votes, or 62.78 per cent of the votes cast, Mr Akpata said. Mr Falae won 11,110,287 votes, or 37.22 per cent.
Mr Akpata appealed to Mr Falae to accept the results and set the stage for a smooth transition of power on May 29th.
"It is the commission's fervent wish and determination that with the formal announcement of the presidential result, the stage has been set for the return of genuine democracy in Nigeria," he said.
Mr Falae denounced the elections as a "farce" but, asked whether he would launch a legal challenge to the results, he was cautious, saying only: "Maybe".
Mr Falae's running mate, Mr Umaru Shinkafi, said he believed it would be a "futile exercise" for the two to challenge Gen Obasanjo's overwhelming victory in the courts.
Blatant ballot rigging and a "seemingly institutionalised pattern of election malpractices . . . certainly affected the . . . outcome" of the election, the two men said in a statement issued earlier. "It was evident and clearly reflected in the preliminary submissions of both local and international observers that the magnitude of electoral fraud and manipulation was monumental."
Mr Falae added that he believed Gen Obasanjo should now, in the national interest, form a government of national unity. "The case for a government of national unity becomes compelling," he said. "It is in the national interest."
International observers, including the former US president Mr Jimmy Carter, said that the elections were marred by "serious irregularities" ranging from ballot stuffing to intimidation of observers. But, they added, given the size of Gen Obasanjo's majority, it appeared that the overall results reflected the will of the Nigerian people and should stand.
South Africa and Japan issued statements congratulating Gen Obasanjo on his win.
Millions of Nigerians turned out on Saturday to vote for the new president under a programme designed to end more than 15 years of military rule in Africa's most populous country. Military rulers have run Nigeria since 1983, when a four-year civilian regime put in place after Gen Obasanjo left office in 1979 was overthrown.
Since then, the nation has seen a series of aborted transitions to democracy by military regimes determined to cling to power. In 1993, Mr Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of failed elections, was imprisoned. He died while still in detention last July.
From 1993 to 1998, Nigeria was run by its most hardline military ruler, Gen Sani Abacha, who was seeking to engineer an extension of his stay in power last year when he died from a heart attack. He was replaced by Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, who ordered the current elections and has promised to hand over to a civilian regime on May 29th.