Lagos--The two main candidates in Nigeria's tense presidential election on Saturday cut sharply different profiles: an ex-military ruler who once cracked down on indiscipline and a zoologist rarely seen without his stylish fedora.
Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, 57, is a Christian from the Niger Delta oil region in the south while Muhammadu Buhari, 72, is a Muslim from the north and a retired major general.
Their backgrounds in some ways mirror regional, ethnic and religious divisions in Africa's most populous nation, with Nigeria's north mainly Muslim and its south predominately Christian.
But politics in a country with more than 300 ethnic groups and a population of 173 million is notoriously unpredictable, and support can shift in unforeseen ways.
The Boko Haram conflict, which has left more than 13,000 dead since 2009, has also played a major role in the campaign.
- Not his turn? -
An ethnic Ijaw from a family of canoe makers, Jonathan's rise to the top of his country's ruthless political world has been described as accidental.
Fortune certainly seems to have favoured Jonathan throughout his political career, as his first name would imply.
He became governor of his native Bayelsa state in 2005 after his predecessor was impeached over money-laundering charges in Britain.
The night he was nominated by his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Umaru Yar'Adua's running mate before 2007 polls, many Nigerians had never heard of him.
Some have argued he was chosen because he was seen as pliable and served to balance the ticket, representing the restive Niger Delta.
He was thrust into the presidency in 2010 following the death of Yar'Adua, a Muslim from the north, and ran in 2011 elections.
For many in Nigeria's north, it was not Jonathan's turn to be head of state.
His decision to run in 2011 violated an agreement within his PDP to rotate its candidate between the north and south every two terms.
Because Yar'Adua died before his first term was up, northern elites believed the presidency should have returned to their region.
In the end, he ran and won handily -- beating out Buhari -- making him the first elected Ijaw president and the first from the Niger Delta.
AFP
