Nigeria holds elections from which Buhari’s successor will emerge in the midst of an economic and security crisis

Opposition Peter Obi is listed as a third way to the two parties that have traditionally dominated Nigerian politics

25 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The population of Nigeria is called to the polls this Saturday for presidential and parliamentary elections that will be marked by the race to elect the successor to the president, Muhammadu Buhari, and the humanitarian and security crisis that the African country has been going through for years.

Buhari cannot stand for re-election because he has already served the maximum two terms established by the Constitution, which has opened a dispute that on this occasion has a third way that confronts the two parties that have traditionally dominated the Nigerian politician.

Thus, while Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Party (APP) has nominated former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu as its candidate and the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in polls it has emerged with Peter Obi, also an opponent of the Labor Party, is also a force. They are joined by former Kano Governor Raibu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian People’s Party.

The four appear as the main favorites for the Presidency, although there are a total of 18 candidates in the running, while more than 4,200 people have applied for one of the 469 seats in the National Assembly. The elections will be complemented in two weeks by the vote on March 11 of 28 of the 36 state governors.

The presidential elections in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, mark the first time since the country’s return to civilian rule in 1999 that neither candidate is a former military leader, as was the case for Buhari, who has been at the head of the country between December 1983 and August 1985 after a coup.

Against this background, Tinubu, 70, aims to continue the APC’s dominance in Nigerian politics during Buhari’s terms, although this time he is facing increased pressure from the opposition.

The politician, who was in exile during the Sani Abacha dictatorship (1993-1998), has defended during his campaign the growth of Lagos during his tenure as governor between 1999 and 2007, when the city -the most populous in Africa- – grew thanks to foreign investment, although many projects are now in disrepair.

The second big name in contention in the presidential elections is Abubakar, who is running for the sixth time since 1992 — always without success. The 76-year-old PDP candidate has held different public positions during his career and is also an oil businessman.

Abubakar has also based his campaign on promoting the progress achieved between 1999 and 2007, when he was vice president, although his party has suffered internal tensions since it won the June primaries due to several southern governors betting on a candidate from this area. from the country.

Despite the fact that the presidential elections in Nigeria have usually focused on two candidates, on this occasion Obi has achieved significant support from urban youth who are betting on his figure against the traditional parties, represented by candidates from the old guard.

The 61-year-old Labor Party candidate recently defended in statements to the British television channel BBC that the elections are “the old versus the new”, although some analysts doubt the possibility of the support materializing at the national level amplified through social networks.

POLITICAL TENSIONS

The vote will also take place amid rising tensions between political parties, including attacks on politicians, election officials and candidates during the campaign, acts carried out by party-associated militias, criminal gangs and other armed groups.

Thus, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) has stated that “the electoral campaign has further polarized the political and media climate”, including accusations against some candidates of hate speech and incitement to intercommunity tensions. .

ACLED has pointed out, however, that political violence “is largely in line with the levels observed before the 2019 elections”, while warning of the risk of “a further uptick in violence after the elections”.

In fact, the last two elections were postponed at the last minute, partly due to insecurity, although the Nigerian electoral commission has stressed on this occasion that the vote will take place on the scheduled date and has stressed that voting “is a responsibility civilian as a citizen of Nigeria to participate in the election of leaders”. “There can be no election without voters,” she has reviewed.

In a bid to reduce uncertainty, Nigeria’s 18 political parties signed an agreement in the capital Abuja on Wednesday pledging to accept the election results or seek legitimate means to lodge their grievances.

The agreement, the second of its kind in the last five months, was applauded by US President Joe Biden, who stressed that all signatories thus commit to “supporting a peaceful transfer of powers.”

“Elections are a fundamental part of a functioning democracy and all Nigerians deserve this opportunity to choose their future freely and fairly,” he said, before asking the population to “make their voices heard” through the ballot papers “.

VIOLENCE AND ECONOMIC CRISIS

The elections will take place in the midst of a serious economic crisis and a security crisis due to the upsurge in jihadist attacks and the operations of armed criminal gangs, as well as the resurgence of Biafran separatism in the southeast.

During the last weeks, an economic crisis marked by the shortage of fuel and the new local currency, recently redesigned, has deepened, which has triggered protests in various parts of the country due to the inability of part of the population to obtain cash .

Thus, there have been long queues in front of numerous ATMs where the population can withdraw only about 40 euros a day, which has meant that some families do not have enough money to buy food or food.

The problem derives from the fact that a large part of the population handed over their old banknotes and coins to the banks, while they have not been able to recover it in the new currency due to the shortage of banknotes, which has increased the discontent with Buhari, who has ordered that the low denomination 200 naira bills remain in circulation.

The crisis adds to growing insecurity in the northeast of the country -shaked by attacks by Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA)-, which has also spread to other areas in the north, where there are fears about his connection to armed gangs.

Likewise, the southeast of the country has recently been the scene of an increase in attacks attributed to the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), founded by Nnamdi Kanu in 2014. The increase in these attacks has led to a reinforcement of security operations in this area of ​​the country, where the independence of Biafra was proclaimed in 1967, triggering a bloody civil war that lasted for three years and left more than a million dead, most of them from hunger.

For this reason, the elections figure as a crucial moment when it comes to consolidating democracy in Nigeria, which to date has not registered a longer period of uninterrupted civilian rule in its history, especially given the recent increase in military coups. In the continent.