People's Democratic Party (Nigeria) to five years in prison. The party is a moderate advocate of state-autonomy and religious freedom for the Nigerian provinces. In the year 2000 the introduction of Islamic law in some states in Northern Nigeria triggered sectarian violence in Kaduna and Abia states. The PDP-led federal government refused to bow to pressure from the southern, predominantly Christian states to repeal the law, and instead opted for a compromise where Islamic law would only apply to Muslims. In the 2015 elections, the incumbent president and PDP presidential nominee, Goodluck Jonathan, was defeated by General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress
Head of state Head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona that officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. Depending on the country's form of government and separation of powers, the head of state may be a ceremonial figurehead or concurrently the head of government. In the parliamentary system the head of state is the "de jure" leader of the nation, because the leader "de facto" is the prime minister. In contrast, the semi-presidential system has both heads of state and government as the leaders "de facto" of the nation (in practice