Nigeria Elects a President: observer’s log
As the Federal Republic of Nigeria lurches this month towards its third consecutive democratic election since 1999, a significant and historic marker if it does take place, Africa’s biggest country must account to its voters why the road to elections is so fraught with tension. Despite the problems, Nigeria is conducting the election process in its own inimical style, prompting the observer to hold his breath as questions about the sustainability of democracy here are raised daily. Elections appear to be more about process than issues despite the difficult questions of distributing the country’s oil wealth and stopping the violence in the Niger Delta, and the related issues of endemic poverty.
After overcoming a difficult attempt by the incumbent second term President Olesegun Obasanjo to amend the constitution so that he could serve a third term, and a presidential primary process that saw new parties emerge and little public interest, we are now in a month in which governors and state assemblies will be elected in all of the states and a new President will be elected on 21 April. The two most important parties, Obasanjo’s PDP and the opposition ANPP get the most attention with a third new party, the Action Congress formed by current embattled Vice President Atiku Abubakar trying very hard to find a way onto the ballots. Yesterday’s news that the Federal Court had upheld the Independent National Elections Commission’s decision to deny Atiku a place on the ballot because he is actually under indictment for alleged corruption, brought out the yandaba urban thugs who climbed huge roadside billboards to tear up PDP posters and blocked traffic on major streets. We flashed the Action Congress ‘peace sign’ as we witnessed the poster destruction and as the yandaba rocked our car back and forth in the middle of an expressway.
The leading candidates for the Presidency are the PDP’s Umar Yar’adua, current governor of Katsina State and the ANPP’s Muhammadu Buhari, retired general and former military ruler of the country, also from a town in Katsina, in the far north bordering the Niger Republic. In Nigeria’s electoral geography, it is the North’s “turn” to elect a president after 8 years of Chief Obasanjo, who is from the Yoruba town of Abeokuta, the home of the late superstar Fela, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, and OU’s own Matthew Adeyanju. The general sense of the electorate is that Obasanjo’s PDP will do anything to avoid defeat at the polls, fearing retribution from the next administration for whatever corruption may have allegedly taken place during Obasanjo’s two terms.
While a Northerner will surely emerge as President one way or another, Nigeria’s cultural demography also seeks scrupulous balance in politics whenever possible. Each of the leading candidates for President has a Southern running-mate- generally from the Niger Delta area now known as the “South-South” states (lodged between the southeast and southwest). So the campaign posters feature pictures of the Northern Presidential candidates in their Hausa ‘hula’ caps backed up by their Vice Presidential running mates sporting the wide-brimmed fedora-like head gear favored by politicians and traditional rulers from the Delta. One candidate for governor of Lagos State is taking no chances. That city is plastered with alternating posters of him wearing western suit and tie and traditional Yoruba cap.
The blend of regional distinctions and national similarities make the huge Nigerian case so very interesting. The two largest states, Lagos and Kano, have adopted very different electoral styles with neighborhood and stadium rallies favored in Kano, featuring the candidate making speeches that stick to a “brighter day” theme, and Lagos seeing a lot of SUV’s disgorge elegantly turned out candidates in front of hotel ballrooms, accompanied by young men in dark suits running along side. The candidate’s wife steps out of the SUV as well, also in dark suit, and we do not see the wives in Kano, where no one wears dark suits.
Steve Howard
