As expected, interim President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won the presidency in his own right in Nigeria’s elections. The results were not especially close, certainly not enough to cast the results in serious doubt and despite the inevitable claims of vote rigging, corruption, and general malfeasance by the opposition, observers believe it was as clean as any vote since Nigeria emerged from military rule in 1999. The PDP lost seats in the country’s parliamentary elections, indicating that the PDP stranglehold on politics is not what it once was despite Jonathan’s overwhelming victory.
Jonathan’s victory has already led to violence and recriminations in the northern parts of the country where the opposition ran strongest and suspicions of Jonathan and the PDP are greatest. With the interim label removed from his title Jonathan has before him myriad major challenges, including bringing together the fractured South and North and dealing with the oil-riven violence in the Niger Delta. Observers may have validated the elections, but the only real validation will come if Jonathan can lead effectively his fragile country going forward.
