Observers Say Nigerian Presidential Poll “Not Credible”

Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, held a presidential election yesterday. At least 200 people died in the week before the polling, all in election-related violence. “These elections have not lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people and the process cannot be considered to have been credible,” said Max van den Berg, chief EU observer, in a statement. The ruling party looks to have won (is anyone surprised?) while the two largest opposition parties want a re-run. Can more violence and instability be far behind this?

Nigeria ought to be stinking rich. Home to 135 million people, it’s sitting on an ocean of oil. Yet because of political strife that has plagued the country since independence (or even before it), the country exports crude but actually has to import refined fuel because local refineries can’t cope. Military government has been common (with all the mismanagement that goes with it), and this election would represent the first time that a civilian administration had handed over power to another civilian administration.

Jonathan Clayton, reporting for The Times, wrote, “We have seen incidents when an army truck was found with thousands of completed ballot papers in favour of the ruling party, two days before the elections took place. In many places where the Opposition was strong, polling booths couldn't open until half an hour before they were due to close. Other polling stations didn't have any ballot boxes or ballot papers delivered to them. Ballot boxes were stuffed.” The BBC reported, “The boldest attempt to disrupt polling was in the hours before polling was due to start when a petrol tanker laden with gas cylinders was used in an attack on the electoral commission's headquarters in Abuja.” Numerous other sources cited the same incident.

The US-based International Republican Institute stated, “Nigeria’s election process, which we recognise is still continuing and thus far incomplete, falls below the standards which Nigeria itself has set in previous elections and also falls below international standards, witnessed by IRI and members of this delegation throughout the world. Neither the spirit of Nigerians who went to the polls to cast their ballots nor the dedication of the thousands of poll workers struggling to execute their responsibilities in polling stations throughout the country were matched by their leaders.”

When the “official” results come out a bit later today, ruling party presidential candidate Umaru Yar’Adua is going to be declared the winner. Vice-president turned opposition leader Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari will not accept the result, and they want new elections. Civil strife is likely. What is worse is the sense that Nigeria, with all of its advantages, cannot be made to work.

The president of the Nigerian senate, Ken Nnamani, summed it up in the tone of a patriot whose government is not living up to its responsibilities, “There will be a legacy of hatred. People will hate the new administration and they will have a crisis of legitimacy. These people have no shame. We are not encouraging other African countries who look up to us for an example. We have abdicated that role.”

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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