2019 — Nigeria's Midnight Election Postponement

Nigerians finally voted in their presidential election on February 23, 2019, one week late. At 2:45 a.m. on February 16, INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu had announced that the polls were postponed, just hours before voting was due to begin.

When the vote happened, President Muhammadu Buhari defeated Atiku Abubakar, 55 percent to 41 percent. Atiku rejected the result, claiming a secret server showed he had won, a claim the courts dismissed in full. The midnight postponement shook faith in the process before a single ballot was cast, and its shadow hung over the result. The postponement itself became the story Nigerians remembered long after the counting ended that year at last.