Pundits Tip Buhari For Victory - Sun Newspaper

As Nigerians go to the polls tomorrow, political pundits have tipped General Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The pundits all seasoned journalists, made their prediction after two sessions of deliberations at a Presidential Election Roundtable organised by Newsbreak.ng, a broad-spectrum online news medium, which examined issues around the presidential election.

In the debate, they, however, submitted that it would be a close race. This was hinged on their conviction that the six-week shift in date had allowed President Jonathan’s campaign to regain a bit of momentum following the success of the counter-insurgency offensive in the North-Eastern part of the country.

Among those in attendance at the sessions were Ikechukwu Amaechi, a former member of the judges’ panel of CNN/MultiChoice African Journalists of the Year Award and Editor-in-Chief of The Niche; Adekanmi Ademiluyi, Editorial Board Chairman of The Niche, Mojeed Jamiu, former Director-General, Ekiti State Broadcasting Service and Wale Fatade, a columnist with thecable.ng. At both sessions, participants examined a variety of issues around the election, notably the direction the pendulum of victory would swing, readiness of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), neutrality of the security agencies, quality of public discourse and quality of campaigns of the two major candidates. Others were, where the election would be won or lost, zones with the potentials for combustion and the role of the media in shaping debates around the election.

Buhari was tipped to win in Kwara, Kebbi, Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe and Borno, while Adamawa called at 50-50 chance. The panel, however, noted that Jonathan would score between 15 and 20 per cent of votes cast in Jigawa, Kebbi, Katsina, Kaduna Bauchi and Gombe states.

Jonathan was tipped to sweep Taraba, Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa (65 to 35 per cent) because of the huge Christian population in those states. Buhari, the analysts reckoned, would post a decent showing in Taraba and Nasarawa.

The President was tipped to win overwhelmingly in the South-East and South-South zones, which have fewer eligible voters than the North-West and North-East, where Buhari is a cult figure.

The North-East and North-West alone account for 22.6 million of the collected PVCs. If that figure was added, the 9.2 million collected in the South-West, another Buhari stronghold, the sum would be more than half of 54.6million collected nationally.