Immediately after polls close on February 16, 2019 – the 72 hours that follow, or however long it will take to collate the results – will be the most crucial in the months-long process to elect a new president. And for the two leading candidates, President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, those moments will be one of their most tensed, with every passing minute seeming like eternity. Without prejudice to the remaining presidential candidates, one of these two candidates will likely emerge winner of the election.
For that short period of time after polls close, Amina Zakari, a national commissioner at the Independent National Electoral Commission, will be in charge of logistics at the venue for the collation of results. That will definitely be a huge task for her. But it is one that the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) feels she shouldn’t be placed in over her alleged family ties with President Buhari, the APC candidate. The task…
