by Godwin Akanfe
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) has won the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
The erstwhile head of state defeated- former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwanso and the publisher of the Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda-Isaiah – to win the opposition party’s ticket at the next general election in 2015.
Buhari scored 3,430 votes; Atiku, 954; Kwankwaso, 974; Okorocha, 624; and Isaiah, 10. The total voided votes numbered 16.
The voting process, which began late at night on Wednesday, December 10, ended in the morning of Thursday, December 11, which was when the excitement began.
Below is a timeline of events telling how Buhari became presidential aspirant of the APC.
(8:45 am) Voting is finally over. Majority of the delegates are leaving, having been here since yesterday. Many leaving, are citing fatigue as their reasons
(8:50 am) One of the leading aspirants, Muhammadu Buhari leaves the venue, maybe to freshen up. He was the last candidate to leave.
(9:00 am) They are about to merge the votes together so that sorting and counting can start. The real fun is about to commence.
A quick word on the conduct of the vote, and the convention itself. Nothing was left to chance in the planning and execution, which, it must be said, has been exemplary by Nigerian standards. Asides from the lateness which is a perennial feature of Nigerian life, every other thing has gone like clockwork.
There was a little argument involving delegates from Delta State about accreditation and ballots, but it was resolved very quickly. That has been the only hiccup since yesterday. We wait patiently for counting to commence.
(9:10 am) The votes are now being combined before counting. What you see is box 14 of 52.
(9:30 am) Sorting has started. Mild interest as the agents insisted that they receive the votes before placing in the box. First 20 votes went 15 to Buhari, 5 to Kwankwaso, Rochas was the first other person to get a vote. Buhari in an early lead, Sam Nda-Isaiah has not gotten a single mention. Almost 100 votes counted.
(9:45 am) With somewhere between 500 and a thousand votes sorted, and announced, General Buhari is the clear front-runner with Kwankwaso a distant second running neck and neck with Atiku. Rochas is slightly behind both men, and Sam Nda-Isaiah has still not gotten a mention.
(10:05 am) Sam Nda-Isaiah finally gets a vote. The crowd goes wild with excitement at this wonderful development.
(10:45 am) We spoke with APC national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, who expressed the party’s penchant for transparent democracy.
(11:00 am) Lai Mohammed: “For too long a time, the PDP has very unfairly criticised our party for lacking internal democracy. Our response has always been that it was too early and premature to make such an accusation because this party is less than 18 Months old and this is our first major outing outside the National Convention where we elected our officials.”
“But all attempts to convince Nigerians fell on deaf ears because of some of our members who left the party mostly because they failed in their quest to become officers of the party, or the failed attempts of some of their sponsors. But we are confident, and determined to show Nigerians that this is a new party that truly believes in democracy.”
“So we have used this opportunity to showcase without any doubt the abundance of Internet democracy in our party. This is why we resolved, that every aspect of these primaries will be subjected to public scrutiny.”
(11:05 am) The announcing of the name on the ballots, which was previously being done by Abubakar Kawu Baraje, has now been taken over by Boss Mustapha.
(12: 00 pm) Sorry for the long break in transmission, like most around here, we are finding the vote counting a bit tedious. A small commotion down there lightened things up a little, but we’ve now returned to the monotonous sotto vocce of Buhari, Buhari, Buhari, Kwankwaso, Buhari, Buhari, Rochas, Buhari, Buhari, Atiku…
(12:50 pm) Sam Nda-Isaiah now has 7 votes…
(2: 00 pm) They have finished sorting the ballot papers, and are now formally counting the votes. Based on what we heard during the sorting out process, YNaija is calling this as a victory for Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), who by the end of today will be officially declared the APC’s presidential candidate.
What sense is in this your how Buhari won?