After Delays, Nigerians Keep Watch For Key Vote’s Outcome

Party agents and supporters of presidential candidate Peter Obi of the Labour Party cheer as their candidate wins the count at a polling station near to the home of ruling party presidential candidate Bola Tinubu, in Lagos, Nigeria Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. Voters in Africa's most populous nation are heading to the polls Saturday to choose a new president, following the second and final term of incumbent Muhammadu Buhari. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

BY CHINEDU ASADU

ABUJA, NIGERIA (AP) — Some frustrated Nigerians cast their ballots with flashlights while others stood watch at their polling stations as counting got under way late Saturday amid fears of vote tampering after a day of delays in Africa’s most populous nation.

Election officials blamed the delays on logistical issues, though other observers pointed to the upheaval created by a redesigned currency that has left many unable to obtain bank notes. The cash shortage affected transport not only for voters but also election workers and police officers providing security.

Voting ended well beyond schedule in many places after delays but some were still voting in a few areas where the exercise stretched into the night. In the northwest Bauchi state, Lagos-based Channels TV reported that voters were still voting using their torchlights at around 9 p.m.

And in Abuja and Delta state, voters stuck around to monitor the process and ensure the results were not tampered with.

“Nightfall has come — anything can happen (now),” Torke Ezekiel said after casting his ballot.


While there were fears of violence on Election Day, from Islamic militants in the north to separatists in the south voting was largely peaceful Saturday though a dramatic scene unfolded in the megacity of Lagos in the mid-afternoon.

Associated Press journalists saw armed men pull up to the voting station in a minibus, fire shots in the air and snatch the presidential ballot box. The shots sent voters screaming and scattering for cover, and ballots strewn across the floor.

And in the northeast state of Borno, at least five people including children, were wounded when Boko Haram extremists attacked voters in Gwoza town, local authorities said.

Mahmood Yakubu, head of Nigeria’s election commission, said national collation of results in the presidential election would commence at noon on Sunday. In 2019, the winner of the presidential election was announced four days after the voting day.

“We are making very steady progress and we will continue to ensure that nothing truncates our democracy or truncates the will of the Nigerian people,” said Yakubu, the election chief.

However, Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk intelligence company, said voting “has been very complicated for Nigerians.”

There have been “widespread complaints about late-arriving officials, nonfunctioning machines, low presence of security and attacks on polling stations,” he added.

Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is stepping down after two four-year terms in Nigeria, a West African country where unemployment has soared to 33% even as one of the continent’s top oil producers.

Out of the field of 18 presidential candidates, three front-runners emerged in recent weeks: the candidate from Buhari’s ruling party, the main opposition party candidate and a third-party challenger who has drawn strong support from younger voters.

But it remained unclear how many voters were deterred because of the cash crisis, which has left Nigerians with funds in their bank accounts unable to obtain the cash they need for things like gas and taxis.

“Voters said the new naira policy made it very difficult for people to transport themselves to their polling units and they were also hungry. So they felt rather than going out to burn energy, they should just stay back home,” said Anthony Adejuwon who monitored the election in Osun state.

The vote is being carefully watched as Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy. By 2050, the U.N. estimates that Nigeria will tie with the United States as the third most populous nation in the world after India and China.

It is also home to one of the largest youth populations in the world with a median age of only 18. About 64 million of its 210 million people are between the ages of 18 and 35.

Favour Ben, 29, who owns a food business in the capital, Abuja, said she was backing third-party candidate Peter Obi.

“Obi knows what Nigerians need,” she said. “He knows what is actually disturbing us and I believe he knows how to tackle it.”

Buhari’s tenure was marked by concerns about his ailing health and frequent trips abroad for medical treatment. Two of the top candidates are in their 70s and both have been in Nigerian politics since 1999.

By contrast, at 61, Obi of the Labour party is the youngest of the front-runners and had surged in the polls in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s vote.

Still, Bola Tinubu has the strong support of the ruling All Progressives Congress party as an important backer of the incumbent president. And Atiku Abubakar has the name recognition of being one of Nigeria’s richest businessmen, having also served as a vice president and presidential hopeful in 2019 for his Peoples Democratic Party.

For the first time this year Nigeria’s election results will be transmitted electronically to headquarters in Abuja, a step officials say will reduce voter fraud. Officials also say they’ll be enforcing a ban on mobile phones inside voting booths to prevent vote-buying: images of the votes are usually sent as proof if people have received money to pick a certain candidate.

Since officials in November announced the decision to redesign Nigeria’s currency, the naira, new bills have been slow to circulate. At the same time, older bank notes stopped being accepted, creating a shortage in a country where many use cash for daily transactions.

Durmaz says the currency change should have been laid out in a longer timeline before or after the election. Lengthy waits to vote “will likely disenfranchise voters, deepen the electoral disputes and trigger violence.”

“Delays along with reports of voter suppression in Lagos risk aggravating the disappointment among passionate voters in a highly-anticipated election and cause an explosion of violent protests in urban centers,” he warned. “Any outbreak of violence could rapidly embrace ethnic and religious undertones, given the considerable impact of ethnic and religious differences on elections in Nigeria.”

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Associated Press journalists Grace Ekpu in Lagos, Nigeria; Yesica Fisch in Yola, Nigeria; Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria; Dan Ikpoyi in Agulu, Nigeria; Hilary Uguru in Asaba, Nigeria; Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, and Sam Mednick in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso contributed to this report.

Is Peter Obi Nigeria’s Saviour Or A Western Delusion?

 

Peter Obi. Image via Youtube

BY ALEKS EROR

Africa’s most populous nation goes to the polls on Saturday (25 February) to elect a new president. One candidate, Peter Obi, who appears to have become the front runner, has captured the imagination of the western media.

Obi, 61, the leader of the Nigerian Labour Party, has pitched himself as a fresh-faced progressive and outsider who will clean up the muck of Nigerian politics and build a fairer, more just nation. The country’s youth – a powerful voting bloc in a country where around two-thirds of the population of 213 million is under the age of 30 – appear to be on Obi’s side and, if you read election coverage in the international press, you might get the impression that Nigeria is on the verge of a bright new era. But is Obi really Nigeria’s saviour, or is this simply a media mirage?

The challenges facing Nigeria’s next president are immense. Security has deteriorated drastically over the last few years, the country is in the midst of a cash crisis caused by a disastrous attempt to replace old naira bills with redesigned ones, inflation is soaring, and corruption is so widespread that the state barely functions. For many Nigerians, things can barely get worse and Obi – who is running against two well-established and well-funded candidates in their seventies – is promising to deliver prudence and accountability to a failing political system.

It feels like we’ve been here before. From Syriza in Greece to Barack Obama via Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, recent history is full of examples of fawning journalists turning progressive political leaders and movements into deities that inevitably fail to live up to the hopes projected onto them.

Syriza came to power on an anti-austerity platform and then promptly proceeded to ignore the results of the 2015 Greek bailout referendum and accepted an austerity programme imposed by the EU and International Monetary Fund. Far from delivering hope, Obama’s underwhelming presidency laid the ground for the profound cynicism of Donald Trump’s administration. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, refused to acknowledge the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in her country.

This trend is often far more pronounced in the developing world, which is largely ignored in between election cycles by the international media. Nigeria has profound and complicated political fault lines. Analysis of these divides is rare until election time and even then global audiences receive little more than a superficial overview.

Passing readers demand a narrative that is easy to comprehend and basic information on who to back so that they can feel invested in the race. And nothing is more engaging than an underdog story about a candidate who preaches western values, like Peter Obi. Often this turns flawed politicians into messianic revolutionaries who are arguably set up for failure. No wonder faith in journalists and politicians is so low when both are so guilty of overinflating the expectations of the public.

Recent coverage of Obi is evidence of this. He is presented as an anti-establishment outsider coming up against the two dominant forces in Nigerian politics, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This picture doesn’t fit the reality. Obi has been involved in politics for nearly 20 years. He was the PDP’s vice-presidential candidate at the last election in 2019, running alongside Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president, who, now 76, is once again the party’s nominee.

Like Atiku, Obi has been accused of corruption. His financial affairs were reported in the 2021 Pandora Papers leaks and Obi has admitted to owning several shell companies based in offshore tax havens and maintaining foreign bank accounts while holding political office, both of which violate anti-corruption laws in Nigeria.

Obi, who was governor of Anambra state in south-east Nigeria between 2006 and 2014, has publicly defended the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist group that is officially listed as a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government (though the UK has not listed the group as such). Nigerian officials say that IPOB bombings have killed dozens of civilians in the south-east, though the organisation denies involvement.

Security was also a significant blight on Obi’s period of governor. The local unit of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) – a notorious branch of the Nigerian police that was dissolved in 2020 for engaging in widespread criminality – in the Anambra town of Awkuzu became known for detaining civilians on bogus charges, torturing and often murdering detainees. An Amnesty International report singled out Awkuzu SARS as one of the most brutal after it dumped the bodies of 35 victims in the Ezu river. Though the report was published after Obi left office, in an election where security is the number one issue, there is little in the politician’s track record to suggest that he is equipped to make the country safer. Or, for that matter, resolve any of the deep-rooted dysfunctions that plague the Nigerian state. His intentions may be genuine, but his ability to deliver on his promises is unclear.

A common criticism of the media is that it only reports bad news, but unrealistic optimism can also undermine faith in journalism. Because when the great new hope eventually fails to deliver the change that voters expect, people become even more jaded. Fatalism then sets in and the electorate grows ever more contemptuous of politicians. It would be uniquely troubling if this were to happen to Nigeria, because, with a median age of just 18 years, it is one of the world’s youngest nations and one of the fastest growing – by 2050, Nigeria is projected to overtake the US to become the third most-populous country after India and China.

If a “youthquake” does bring Obi to power on Saturday, we should all hope that he’s capable of living up to the glowing coverage that he has received from western journalists. If Nigerian readers do succumb to this hype and he fails to deliver on his promise, Africa’s largest democracy risks sinking into disillusion for generations to come. If it does, be certain that there are plenty of malign forces in Nigeria ready to exploit that.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Obi’s Popularity And The Secessionists’ Propaganda

Peter Obi

BY RICHARD MADUKU

“Be wary of settling in any town or village in Nigeria where an Igbo person is not found.” Only a few adults in Nigeria would say that they have not heard this saying. And on hearing it for the first time, no well-travelled grown-up in Nigerian would say it is not true. The population of Igbo in most big towns outside their homeland is so huge that some have their own kings and chiefs! No other ethnic group is as widely ingrained into the Nigerian fabric as the Igbo.

Apart from being found in large numbers in every town and village, they also dominate most businesses all over Nigeria. They have even monopolized a few businesses such as the importation and retail of automobile spare parts. In the highbrow areas of all the big cities, most of the eye-arresting mansions are owned by them. They are by far the richest. But despite the hospitality of their hosts that made them to luxuriate like trees by the riverside, some Igbo still grumble that they are hated by other Nigerians.

They started grumbling after the Civil War in 1970 despite how other Nigerians bent over backward to welcome them back. The Igbo harbouring this belief have turned from grumbling into loud agitation. It started not long after the military handed over to a democratically-elected government in 1999.

They formed an organization known as the ‘Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)’, which simply means secession once again. This time though, after a referendum to determine if it is the wish of the majority. The secessionists have since begun to spread their views through every medium including a pirate radio station. Being so better-off than other ethnic groups, many non-Igbo can hardly believe that some of them are still agitating this way.

The agitation became more virulent about seven years ago when a faction broke away from MASSOB to form the ‘Indigenous people of Biafra’ (IPOB). It is led by one Nmandi Kanu of dual nationality (Nigerian/U.K). He is known for his fiery rhetoric (some bordering on the bizarre) against the rest of Nigeria.

Mr. Kanu, for instance, had accused the Federal Government for aiding the Fulani to subjugate the whole country through terrorism as they had done to Hausa and some other tribes in northern Nigeria. He revealed that the unchecked infiltration into forests of the Southeast and other zones by terrorists masquerading as herdsmen is the first stage of the subjugating agenda of the Fulani.

He was charged for treason and while on bail, the Nigerian Army invaded his family home but he managed to escape to the U.K. From there he went on to create an outfit known as Eastern Security Network (ESN) to flush the Fulani terrorists out of the Southeast forests. Some other states have since created similar outfits solely for the same purpose – a proof that Kanu did not lie on this.

A few years back before his abduction from Kenya and eventual detention in Abuja last year, Kanu’s daily tirade on his pirate radio station and the social media had moved his supporters into demonstrating along Nigerian major roads and streets chanting: ‘We want Biafra! We want Biafra!’ The protesters outside the Southeast were even more in number and more unruly than their brothers back home. They began to cause traffic disruptions in many places. It got to a stage some youth groups in the North could no longer tolerate it and they gave them a three months’ notice to quit their region.

Not all non-Igbo were surprised that the demonstrations abruptly stopped and Igbo leaders everywhere who had not condemned the agitation began to sing reconciliatory tunes. This episode reminded one of a cartoon in the social media with the title ‘What manner of people are these?’

In the first strip of the cartoon, a man on a podium had asked a hall filled with Muslims “Who wants sharia?” All hands had shot up. “Who wants to live in Saudi Arabia or Iran?” the man on the podium went on to ask in the second strip but surprisingly nobody raised his hand! But that was not the end. In the last strip, the man then asked: “Who wants to live in the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom?” And like in the first question, all hands went up again!

The quit notice episode is not the only area that makes many non-Igbo to wonder ‘What manner of people are these Biafran agitators?’ The presidency of Nigeria which no Igbo person has held since the return to democratic rule is another area. The secessionists still think an Igbo president is overdue in Nigeria. They believe the presidency had eluded them since the end of the Civil War because other Nigerians had ganged up against them. Many non-Igbo are unsure what the secessionists really want: Biafra or the Presidency?

If it is the Presidency, something has been happening that rubbishes one plank of their agitation. This trending event has been described variously as unprecedented, a phenomenon, a tsunami, a movement or a democratic revolution. Nigerians in their millions across the country want to vote for Mr. Peter Obi, an Igbo man, to become the president in the 2023 presidential election!

The nation-wide yearning for him to become the president began in May this year (2022) when he became the Labour Party presidential candidate. Since then, Nigerians from all walks of life have been rooting for him as they had never done to anybody in history. This is as a result of his eight years’ record as the Governor of Anambra State.

As a governor, he was able to pay all pensioners, workers and contractors until nobody was owed a kobo by the time he left office. He also invested so much in education including ICT that Anambra students began to excel in external examinations and competitions including those that were global. He also bought shares on behalf of the state that are yielding dividends today. He did not borrow to do all this. As if that was not enough, he left billions of naira in three different banks for his successor!

He was able to accomplish all this and more because he drastically cut the cost of governance including denying himself the luxury and pomp associated with his office as a governor. For instance, he shunned long convoy of vehicles when touring and he ensured he paid by himself for fuel bought on the way. He refused to give brown envelopes to dignitaries who paid courtesy calls on him. He sold the state government lodges in Abuja and Lagos because they were costly to maintain. He even refused to build a Presidential lodge. He moved out of his official house for Presdent Olusegun Obasanjo who was to stay for more than one day when he visited the state!

It is all this and more that has endeared him to the hearts of the multitude now pining for him to be the next president. It shows that Nigerians did not hate the Igbo as the Biafran agitators always claim!

* Maduku, a retired Nigerian Army (Infantry) Captain and novelist, lives in Effurun-Otor, Delta State

Southeast Govs Meet Over 2015

GOVERNORS of the Southeast geo-political zone met in Enugu Saturday to articulate the position of the zone on the Southern Nigeria political leaders meeting holding today in Asaba, the Delta State capital.

Although there was no official confirmation to the positions reached by the governors, sources said the Enugu meeting, which lasted for over four hours, deliberated extensively on the role of Ndigbo in 2015 dispensation, stressing that such position would be presented today, when the leaders of the 17 southern states meet in Asaba.

At the meeting were Governors Peter Obi (Anambra), Martin Elechi (Ebonyi), Theordore Orji (Abia), Sullivan Chime (Enugu) and Deputy Governor of Imo state, Eze Mmadumere.

There were also others in the meeting including, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha Senator Ayogu Eze,Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Minister of Power,Professor Chinedu Nebo, a representative of the traditional institution of the zone, the clergy led by Dr Amos Madu, the archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province, Anglican communion, among others.

But Governor Obi, who is also the chairman of South East governors forum, who emerged after the closed door meeting told Journalists that the meeting discussed about the visit of President Goodluck Jonathan as well as the burial plans of literary icon, Late Professor Chinua Achebe.

Achebe, he restated would be buried on May 23, this year at his family compound in Ogidi, Anambra state, stressing that the meeting was basically the review plans already made by the burial committee and the governors.

President Goodluck Jonathan will be embarking on a working visit to the Southeast zone of the country within the week. Obi added that the visit formed the reason for the emergency meeting.

The governor, who failed to give the exact date of the President’s visit to the zone, also failed to entertain questions from newsmen on other discussions at the meeting.

--------Lawrence Njoku, Guardian, May 11, 2013

Obi Pledges To Rebuild Ojukwu Library

Ojukwu Memorial Library, Owerri

The recent demolition of Late Chukwuemeka Ojukwu’s Memorial Library, which was under construction in Owerri, by unknown persons has continued to attract wide condemnation among residents of the city.

Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and initiator of the library project, Ralph Uwazuruike, had while conducting the visiting Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, in company of Ojukwu’s widow and Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Spain, Bianca Ojukwu, and the Chairman of South-East Council of Traditional Rulers, Cletus Ilomuanya, and others around the ruins, described the destruction as the handiwork of enemies of the Igbos.

Responding, Obi described the development as "shameful and a slight on the Igbo race, especially for any Igboman with sense of history", and promised to quicken action towards reconstruction of the library complex to serve it’s intended purpose.

Mrs Ojukwu, while expressing her shock over the incident, stated that she has come to see things for herself.

---------Nnamdi Ogwazu, Daily Times

Obi Offers N5m For Clue On Bodies Found In Anambra River

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State yesterday offered to pay N5 million as reward to anyone with useful information leading to the source of the unidentified corpses discovered floating on the Ezu River on Saturday.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Obi visited the Ezu River in Amansea, a border town with Enugu State, the scene where the corpses were still floating yesterday.
Members of the Amansea community, near Awka, had woken up Saturday morning to discover 15 corpses afloat the river bordering Anambra and Enugu States.

Obi described the discovery as “mindless killing” and dumping of the corpses as “barbaric and shocking.”

“What happened here is unacceptable in any decent society. Human life and blood is sacred and all of us must respect the sanctity of human life,” Obi said.

Obi, who was accompanied by the State Police Commissioner, Mr. Bala Nassarawa, and other top government officials, urged the people to remain calm as the state governments were on top of the situation. “The police have been directed to move in their homicide teams and recover the bodies,” he said.

In a related development,  the state Deputy Police Public Relations Officer (DPPRO), Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, yesterday confirmed that only 18 bodies were removed from the Ezu River of Amansea in the state. Chukwuemeka, who made the confirmation in Awka, said specifically that “as at Sunday, 18 bodies were found at the time of evacuation,” according to the NAN.

Meanwhile, evacuation of the bodies begun at about 4 p.m. yesterday with a discovery of three additional corpses, bringing the total number to 18. The evacuation was done by some officials in traditional canoes, who moved around the river retrieving bodies to a designated place, apparently for mass burial.

Also on duty for the evacuation were pathologists from the Police and state government, who were expected to carry out autopsy on some of the bodies retrieved.

A check further reveals that the state government has started supplying water to the residents of Amansea, who hitherto depended on the polluted Ezu River for their routine water needs. Some articulated vehicle water tankers were stationed in strategic areas in Amansea, supplying water to the needy people. The State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Mrs Azuka Enemuo, confirmed the evacuation exercise and water supply.

“We will commence drilling of boreholes on Monday to further ameliorate the water plights of the community.”

However, residents of the two neighbouring communities have raised concerns about the health consequences of allowing the corpses to pollute the river, which they depend on for domestic use and economic activities.

Chief Benjamin Onwuneme, a resident of Amansea, said the people depended on the river for a number of economic activities, including fishing and sand excavation.

-------THIS DAY, January 21, 2013

NIGERIA: Obi Says Anambra Owns Disputed Oil Field

The Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi on Thursday dismissed claims made by some groups and states over the ownership of the oil well discovered in the inland basin of Aguleri-Otu, Anambra East local government area.

Addressing the state in a special broadcast at the governor’s lodge, Awka, the governor said the financial commitments of the state in the oil project running in billions which other states and groups laying claims have not done.

Mr Obi said: “on August 30th 2012, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan – GCFR was in Anambra State on a one day working visit to commission the Orient Petroleum facilities among other projects.

“Since then some groups and states have been trying to lay claims to the ownership of the oil fields located in Anambra State.

“It is pertinent to recall that Orient Petroleum Resources Plc was formed during the government of Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju in 2001 and allocated oil fields domiciled in Anambra State.

“Though Dr Mbadinuju did not make any direct monetary contribution. Under Dr Chris Ngige, in 2002/2006, Anambra State government invested the sum of N100 million in the project. Under our government between 2006 and 2009, with the vision and the belief in the positive impact of the project on the economy of the state and the country, we invested directly and indirectly the sum of N4.4billion.

“This investment blustered the confidence of other investors to invest in the venture that made its commissioning a reality,” the governor said.

Mr Obi however, maintained that Anambra state will remain a good neighbour and will continue to pray for oil to be discovered in other states of the country in other that Nigeria will emerge an economic giant in the comity of nations in the world.

Moments after President Goodluck Jonathan opened the refinery built by Orient Petroleum and declared Anambra an oil producing state, the Kogi State, Idris Wada said “Kogi will be a major stake holder in the refinery, considering the fact the oil wells that will service the refinery are in Odeke Community in Ibaji Local Government Area of the state.”

Mr Wada made this claim a day after a community group issued a public notice saying that the oil deposits claimed by Anambra State are within the Odeke community of Kogi State.

The Kogi State governor said he “is doing everything humanly possible to resolve the issues surrounding the location of the oil wells with the contending states and that he is confident that “Kogi State will soon join the league of oil producing states in the country.”

......CHANNELS TV NEWS NIGERIA