While we wait for INEC (that’s Nigeria’s electoral commission) to make the final call, enjoy these supporters of the APC celebrating the victory of their presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, while you study up on the broad context for this election between “two perfectly unacceptable candidates.” (Nigeria is effectively a two-party system of the APC and PDP. The PDP candidate is Goodluck Jonathan, the incumbent president and by all accounts incompetent and unable to stop the rot at the heart of Nigeria’s political system, whether corruption, the turn to the right or the implosion of the state’s capacity to govern even minimally.)

And while we’re at it, some history: Remember, 31 years ago it was Buhari who sentenced Fela Kuti to 10 years in prison for being a musician. Though Fela served 20 months, it is still a scandal. Questions we need to ask: Is Buhari a “born-again” democrat, as Wole Soyinka hopes, or still a “Beast of No Nation”? And who are the Felas of today who will fearlessly tell the truth about Buhari’s government?

The defeat of a sitting president at the ballot box will be a significant thing, whatever the candidates involved, and it’s hard not to get swept up with the optimism reverberating around social media in the last two days. Some are describing this as a profoundly transformational moment for Nigerian democracy. Maybe it will be. For now we’ll stick with Cheta Nwanze’s promise to the president-elect:

Dear General Buhari, in electing you, we've come out of the mental block inflicted by the power of incumbency. Mess up, we will vote you out

— Chxta (@Chxta) March 31, 2015

What will Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency be remembered for exactly? We suspect #GEJPose will be his enduring legacy.