From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1979 Nigerian presidential election

none

Field	Value
country	Nigeria
type	presidential
next_election	1983 Nigerian presidential election
next_year	1983
election_date	11 August 1979
image_size	130x130px
image1	President Sharari cropped.jpg
nominee1	Shehu Shagari
party1	National Party of Nigeria
running_mate1	Alex Ekwueme
popular_vote1	5,688,857
states_carried1	9
percentage1	33.77%
image2	Obafemi_Awolowo_Drawing_(cropped).jpg
nominee2	Obafemi Awolowo
party2	Unity Party of Nigeria
running_mate2	Philip Umeadi
states_carried2	5
popular_vote2	4,916,551
percentage2	29.18%
image3	Nnamdi Azikiwe PC (cropped).jpg
nominee3	Nnamdi Azikiwe
party3	Nigerian People's Party
running_mate3	Ishaya Audu
states_carried3	3
popular_vote3	2,822,523
percentage3	16.75%
map_image	Map of the 1979 Nigerian presidential election.svg
map_caption	States won by Shagari (in blue), Awolowo (in red), Azikiwe (in green), Kano (in orange) and Ibrahim (in yellow)
title	President
before_election	Olusegun Obasanjo
after_election	Shehu Shagari
after_party	National Party of Nigeria

Presidential elections were held in Nigeria for the first time on 11 August 1979. The result was a victory for Shehu Shagari, whose National Party of Nigeria had won the parliamentary elections in July.

Results

By state

State	Ibrahim %	Awolowo %	Shagari %	Kano %	Azikiwe %
Anambra	1.67	0.75	13.50	1.20	82.88
Bauchi	16.44	3.00	62.48	14.34	4.74
Bendel	1.20	53.20	36.20	0.70	8.60
Benue	7.97	2.57	76.38	1.35	11.77
Borno	54.04	3.35	34.71	6.52	1.35
Cross River	15.14	11.76	64.40	1.01	7.66
Gongola	34.09	21.67	35.52	4.34	4.35
Imo	3.00	0.64	8.80	0.59	84.69
Kaduna	14.00	7.00	43.00	31.00	5.00
Kano	1.54	1.23	19.94	76.41	0.91
Kwara	5.71	37.48	53.62	0.67	0.52
Lagos	0.48	82.30	7.18	0.47	9.57
Niger	16.60	3.67	74.88	3.77	1.11
Ogun	0.53	92.61	6.23	0.31	0.32
Ondo	0.26	94.50	4.19	0.18	0.86
Oyo	0.57	85.78	12.75	0.32	0.55
Plateau	6.82	5.29	34.72	3.98	49.70
Rivers	2.18	10.33	72.65	0.46	14.35
Sokoto	26.61	2.52	66.58	3.33	0.92
Source: Oyediran

Aftermath

Main article: Awolowo v Shagari case

Under the 1979 constitution, in order to be elected president on the first ballot a candidate needed to receive both the most votes nationwide and at least 25% of the vote in two-thirds of the states. However, at the time of the election, Nigeria had nineteen states, two-thirds of which in exact figures is 12.66. A dispute thus ensued over whether Shehu Shagari had received the necessary threshold by winning 25% in twelve states and 20% in Kano State, which Shagari claimed was two-thirds of the required 25% threshold and represented the remaining 0.66 in the constitutional threshold. Obafemi Awolowo claimed that the threshold should be rounded up to thirteen states, which Shagari had not met. The Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled in favour of Shagari.

References

[http://africanelections.tripod.com/ng.html Elections in Nigeria] African Elections Database
[[Dieter Nohlen]], Michael Krennerich & Bernhard Thibaut (1999) ''Elections in Africa: A data handbook'', p716
(1981). "The Nigerian 1979 elections". Macmillan Nigeria.
(1979). "Awolowo v. Shagari and Others". Journal of African Law.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1979-elections-in-africa 1979-elections-in-nigeria presidential-elections-in-nigeria election-and-referendum-articles-with-incomplete-results

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1979 Nigerian presidential election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report