The omens for Nigeria’s presidential election on March 28 were not good. Originally scheduled for mid-February, the election was postponed by six weeks due to a lack of voter registration cards, and to give the Nigerian armed forces time to push back the territorial ambitions of Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group operating in the north of the country. Nigeria’s economy was under severe strain after the oil price collapse at the end of 2014, and rival political factions clashed violently.
What followed surprised many. Challenger Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan of the People's Democratic Party by a clear 3 million votes, and enjoyed a smooth transition into power. Mr Jonathan rejected the path taken by many African leaders before him and conceded quickly and conclusively, extinguishing fears of a violent aftermath to the election. Allegations of small-scale electoral fraud emerged, but overall the vote was deemed to be fair.
