Electoral Verdicts: Incumbent President Defeated for Re-election in Nigeria

The history of elections in Nigeria at the presidential level has shown that incumbent presidents always have a political advantage over their challengers. However, history was made when the incumbent president Good luck Jonathan was defeated by the main opposition candidate, Mohammed Buhari in the 2015 presidential elections. In this article, I examine the determining factors in the political discourse that were responsible for the defeat of the incumbent president. Contrary to the insinuation in some quarters that the incumbent president was defeated due to ethnic gang up and the compromised of the electoral empire. I find from the political discourse that the high level of insecurity in the Northeast, institutionalized corruption in the incumbent president‟s administration, united opposition alliance and the mismanagement of the Nigerian economy were the salient factors responsible for the defeat of an incumbent president in Nigeria.