Following a busy day of accreditation and voting yesterday, the collation of results is firmly in progress. Several states have finalised their processes and the results are currently with INEC to collate, validate and declare in a few hours.

Several citizen reporters on the internet have been posting unvalidated results about polling units across the country, but these remain unofficial until final pronouncements are made by INEC. A few of these results put the APC in firm lead over the PDP for the presidential elections, but these are unverified and cannot be taken seriously because only INEC can declare the results.

Following a busy day of accreditation and voting yesterday, the collation of results is firmly in progress. Several states have finalised their processes and the results are currently with INEC to collate, validate and declare in a few hours.

Several citizen reporters on the internet have been posting unvalidated results about polling units across the country, but these remain unofficial until final pronouncements are made by INEC. A few of these results put the APC in firm lead over the PDP for the presidential elections, but these are unverified and cannot be taken seriously because only INEC can declare the results.

What remains true though is that, unlike previous elections where PDP trounced the opposition by wide margins – this election appears to be too close to call. The opposition party (APC) appears to have gotten its act together and is locked in a keenly contested race with the PDP.

Given the close nature of the race, ViewPointNigeria looks at what a Buhari Presidency would mean for Plateau – should he win, that is?

Well, as you can imagine, a lot of citizens in Plateau are very apprehensive about the prospect of another Hausa-Fulani taking the helms of leadership in Nigeria. The fears stem from the previous experience with Yar’adua and how he set out to deal with Plateau people during the numerous crisis and attacks in Plateau. The names Gen. Saleh Maina, Gen. Danbazau and several others remains firmly engrained in the memories of Plateau people because of the manner in which they dealt with Plateau citizens during the trying moments. They championed the killing of innocent citizens and trampled on the rights and integrity of Plateau, without fear of retribution because the President at the time seemed to back them.

Legend has it, that at the time of Yar’adua’s death, the President had promised to deal with the Plateau State Government and was already commissioning wicked strategies of usurping the government. Should this have happened, it would have been the second time another sitting Plateau Governor was shown the way out. This would have been a tragedy, because Plateau would again have been used as an experimental guinea pig.

To summarise: there is no doubt that a Buhari Presidency would be bringing with it a new “national order”. The military will be overhauled with Northerners in key positions, boards of parastatals etc will see a shake-up, the oil industry will sit tight, corruption will be severely curbed and the normal “business-as-usual” nature of government as we know it shall change. The nation may stand to benefit immensely from the change, but unfortunately -Plateau may end up being a loser again. I say this, because of the challenging times that Plateau has faced, in view of the perpetual attacks and counter attacks – which have led several Northerners to consider Plateau a Pariah state, because of its opposition to Hausa-Fulani imperialism and domination.

Note: the writer of this article does not pre-empt or suggest that Buhari shall win the election. The writer only projects a scenario which is currently possible, without suggesting that this is actually the case.

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What does a Buhari Presidency mean for Plateau?