By Will Ross BBC News, Abuja
The race for the presidency is finally over.
“It’s great, fantastic, I’m overwhelmed, it’s a great time to be Nigerian,” says research consultant Simi Fajemirokun in Abuja.
“This party that was only formed two years ago, that has beaten the ruling party. It’s something we just never fathomed a few months ago. But here we are, it’s happened,” she said.
This is a hugely significant moment in Nigeria’s turbulent history. Never before has a sitting president been defeated in an election. Since independence from Britain in 1960, there have been numerous coups and although the 2011 vote was an improvement, most elections have been rigged or even annulled by the military.
