By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor & Donald Idonor

LAGOS – The Presidency has dismissed insinuations of a sectional slant in last weekend’s victory of President Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential election as painted by some sections of the international media.

Expressing concern in some reports that the country is deeply polarized along religious lines with the “Muslim North” voting against President Goodluck Jonathan and the “largely Christian South” voting for him, the presidency debunked the claims, saying it was only aimed at reopening “ancient and outdated stereotype of ethnic and religious divisions in Nigeria.”

The presidency in a statement issued by Ima Niboro, Special Adviser on Media to the President said: “Detailed results of the Presidential elections is that Nigerians proved by their voting pattern in the elections that they have moved beyond divisive and retrogressive sectional politics.”

The statement read:
“A cursory analysis of the results gives the lie to the very unhelpful assertion that the “Muslim North” voted against President Jonathan.  It is a verifiable fact that millions of Muslim Northerners voted to give the President a truly national mandate to continue in office.

“President Jonathan won  in Adamawa and Taraba States in the North-East, and Nasarawa in the North Central. The President got over one million votes which equates to 46 per cent of the valid votes in Kaduna State and also led the polls in such states like Plateau, Kwara and Kogi, all of which have sizeable Muslim populations.

“Reports of the polarization of Nigeria along religious lines is further debunked by the fact that President Jonathan also got over 30 per cent of the votes in the largely Muslim  states of Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger. It is therefore quite unhelpful to state that the country is divided along Muslim/Christian lines when millions of Northern Muslims voted to endorse the candidacy of Jonathan.

“The President’s pan Nigeria mandate is a thing of joy to the vast majority of Nigerians, and it is unnecessary  to sully it with with sectional interpretations due to a lack of understanding of the sometimes complex demographics of this great nation.”