Gen Muhammadu Buhari probably scaled fewer
hurdles throughout the 24 years that his military
career lasted than the ones he was made to scale
between October 2014 and last Saturday. Deputy
News Editor Bunmi Ogunmodede captures the
bumps that were placed before the President-
elect to frustrate him out of the race.
The road to victory for the All Progressives
Congress (APC) was tortuous. There were
landmines from the formation of the party to the
polls which eventually held last Saturday.
It took the opposition forces in the three parties
that passed for regional movements to come
together under the APC to give the self-acclaimed
largest party in Africa the challenge.
The parties, now defunct are: the Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) as well as a faction of the All Progressives
Grand Alliance (APGA), led by Imo State Governor
Owelle Rochas Okorocha.

Registration bumps
An amorphous group laid claim to the APC
franchise and approached the court to stop the
Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) from registering the new party. The
association claimed both the name and the logo
belonged to it.
But the APC under the interim chairmanship of
Chief Bisi Akande convinced the court that INEC
had no such name and logo in its records when
the party approached it for registration. The court
declined the prayer of the association and INEC
eventually listed APC in its register of political
parties.
As soon as it secured INEC’s Certificate of
Registration, the APC became a platform for the
opposition – some genuine, others fair-weather
politicians and many strange bird fellows.

The Abuja Convention
The Convention which at the Eagle Square, Abuja
where the party elected its officials forced the
spies and fifth columnists to leave the same way
they came into the party. They were bitter that
they failed to clinch vital party positions. For
instance, former Foreign Affairs Minister Chief
Tom Ikimi returned to the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) after his kinsman, Chief John Odigie-
Oyegun, clinched the APC chairmanship. Though
Ikimi alleged that he was being treated as an
outsider in the party he helped to form, the party
said it was risky to give those it described as
moles leadership positions. Former Borno State
Governor Ali Modu Sherrif also defected to the
PDP. But the victory of the APC at the
presidential and National Assembly elections has
clearly showed that the exit of some characters
was of no political consequence on the APC.

The Lagos Convention
The belief was that the APC would go into
extinction after its National Convention at the
Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. But the
process that led to the emergence of Gen
Muhammadu Buhari, a former Head of State, as
the party’s standard bearer for the presidential
election, further united all the contenders in line
with the undertaking they had signed to rally
support for whoever emerged as long as the
process was transparent.

Running mate
It took the APC six clear days after it picked Gen.
Buhari to name Prof Olayemi Osinbajo as his
running mate. The choice of Osinbajo, a law
teacher and a Senior Pastor in the Redeemed
Christian Church of God (RCCG) unsettled the
ruling party. Osinbajo laid to rest speculations
that the APC would pair Muslims on its ticket.

Religion
The APC presidential candidate was labelled a
jihadist who will drag Nigeria into the
Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), if elected.
He was portrayed as a religion bigot who has a
soft spot for Islamic militants. But the stain failed
to stick. His driver and cook of 20 years
according to reports, are devoted Christians.
Besides, his running mates during the three
previous attempts – at the presidency in 2003,
2007 and 2011 – are Christians.

Ethnicity
Those opposed to the Gen. Buhari presidency
branded him as an ethnic jingoist, whose passion
is limited to the North. This also failed to
convince discerning Nigerians, who insited on
change – the APC slogan.

Certificate
At a point, the issue of Gen. Buhari’s educational
attainment was brought up and his opponents
said he had not satisfied the educational
requirement to run for the presidency. The
statutory prerequisite is the West Africa School
Certificate (WASCE). He had filled in his INEC
intent form that a copy could be obtained in its
file with the Military Secretary. But the issue
became a subject of controversy when the military
said it only has a recommendation letter from his
erstwhile principal that he was qualified to be
enlisted into the army in 1961. It took the
incumbent principal of Government College (Pilot),
Katsina to re-issue a file copy of Buhari’s WASCE
Statement of Result before the matter was laid to
rest, even the aggrieved rushing to court rooms to
have him disqualified.

Health
Even when his doctor certified him medically fit,
his opponents insisted he was terminally ill and
urged Nigerians not to vote for him.

Hate Adverts
When all failed to stop him, Gen. Buhari’s
opponents resorted to hate documentaries and
publication of hate adverts to cast aspersions on
his person. Several billions went into the drains
to sponsor such advertisements, many of which
never achieved their intended aims.

SCRs/PVCs
When it dawned on those bent on manipulating
the electoral process that the use of the SCRs
and the PVCs will not allow electoral fraud, they
mounted a campaign against the devices. The
biometric verification of the PVCs prevented the
illegal use of ware-housed PVCs to vote.

Postponement
Exactly a week to the presidential and National
Assembly elections, the electoral umpire, on the
advice of security chiefs, announced a six-week
postponement of the elections from February 14
and 28 to March 28 and April 11.
Beyond the security challenges that were cited in
the Northwestern states of Adamawa, Borno and
Yobe as reasons for the polls’ shift, the measure
was to allow the ruling party some space to do
some damage control taking the advantage of the
six-week window. It was also believed that the
opposition would have run out of campaign funds
to sustain the tempo.

Manipulation
The figures returned from some states created an
impression that they were doctored and allocated
to the 14 political parties that were on the ballot.