[SIZE=6]NIGERIA CAN’T DECIDE—YET[/SIZE]
When the first stories broke late on Friday night that Nigeria’s electoral commission was considering delaying the election it seemed like it was yet another one of those speculative stories which make the rounds here rapidly in the social media age.
But after checks and reporting it became clear this was a real possibility and a few hours later INEC chair Mahmood Yakubu was telling the world at 2.30am on Saturday of INEC’s “difficult decision” to postpone the presidential election for a week. He blamed logistical problems laid out it in a long tweet threadlater on Saturday. The election will now take place on Feb. 23.
Even though election delays have happened before in 2015 and 2011, the level of the anger and frustration around the country is palpable but understandable. Businesses closed early on Friday, schools were closed for an extended period and people have traveled from abroad and across the country to cast their votes.
And yet, in the run-up to the election speaking to people in Lagos, there seemed a lot of indifference to the presidential election given the two top candidates, president Muhammadu Buhari and leading opposition candidate and former VP, Atiku Abubakar.
“I’m not excited by any of them, they’re as bad as each other,” says Adedayo, an Uber driver who used to be a forex dealer at a local bureau de change. Like several other people I spoke with he had a voter’s card but wasn’t going to vote for a presidential candidate.
But even though that sentiment and frustration with the sluggish economy is out there, there was also real enthusiasm for the possibilities democracy could present.
There were plenty of serious discussions around the need for third party candidates to be better organized and not show up just a few months before an election and hope to be president. Some pointed to younger candidates like the Afrobeats/Nollywood star Banky W’s campaign for a national assembly seat as one way to go.
Time and again, Nigerians from very different walks of life kept coming back to the idea any serious presidential candidate trying to break the APC (Buhari)-PDP (Atiku) “duopoly” would need to start organizing now for 2023. As one executive, who asked not to be named, suggested:
“This election almost doesn’t matter, it’s all about 2023 to really change this country.”