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 States won by Shagari (in blue), Awolowo (in red), Azikiwe (in green), Kano (in orange) and Ibrahim (in yellow) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Nigeriaportal |
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. [1]
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shehu Shagari | National Party of Nigeria | 5,688,857 | 33.77 | |
| Obafemi Awolowo | Unity Party of Nigeria | 4,916,551 | 29.18 | |
| Nnamdi Azikiwe | Nigerian People's Party | 2,822,523 | 16.75 | |
| Aminu Kano | People's Redemption Party | 1,732,113 | 10.28 | |
| Waziri Ibrahim | Great Nigeria People's Party | 1,686,489 | 10.01 | |
| Total | 16,846,533 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 48,633,782 | – | ||
| Source: Nohlen et al. [2] | ||||
| 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 [3] | |||||
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. [4]
Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo was a Nigerian nationalist and statesman who played a key role in Nigeria's independence movement (1957–1960). Awolowo founded the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Omo Oduduwa, and was the first Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government and Finance, and first Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria's parliamentary system, from 1952 to 1959. He was the official opposition leader in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1959 to 1963.
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Alhaji Abubakar Garba Koko,, Sarkin Yakin Gwandu,, was a Nigerian civil servant, Administrator, and Politician who served as the first Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Abuja. He planned and executed the development of Nigeria's new federal capital in the 80s.
The 1983 Sokoto State gubernatorial election occurred on August 13, 1983. NPN candidate Garba Nadama won the election.
| Presidential elections | |
|---|---|
| Senate elections | |
| House elections | |
| Gubernatorial elections | |
| State elections | |
| Local elections | |
| Referendums | |
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