Nigerian leader urges unity as opponent claims voting fraud

Incumbent deemed clear winner by nearly 4M votes.

ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s president on Wednesday defended his sweeping win of a second term as free and fair and appealed to a “common love of country” as his top challenger vowed to go to court with allegations of fraud.

President Muhammadu Buhari was declared the clear winner by nearly 4 million votes as citizens of Africa’s largest democracy gave him another chance to tackle gaping corruption, widespread insecurity and an economy limping back from a rare recession. While many frustrated Nigerians had said they wanted to give someone new a try, Buhari, a former military dictator, profited from his upright reputation in an oil-rich nation weary of politicians enriching themselves instead of the people.

Top opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar, a billionaire former vice president who made campaign promises to “make Nigeria work again,” quickly rejected the result of what he called a “sham election” and said next steps would be revealed shortly.

As many Nigerians awakened to the win along with the morning prayer, Buhari told colleagues he was “deeply humbled.” He regretted the loss of dozens of lives in “mindless” election-related violence. “I will like to make a special appeal to my supporters not to gloat or humiliate the opposition,” he said. At a later event certifying his victory, he added to applause: “Election is not war and should never be seen as a do-or-die affair.”

Challenger Abubakar said he would have conceded “within seconds” if the vote had been free and fair. Instead he alleged “manifest and premeditated malpractices” in many of Nigeria’s 36 states. He asserted that voting was suppressed in his strongholds in the oil-rich south and that states threatened by an extremist insurgency generated unusually high turnouts.