[ad_1]
As polls closed Saturday afternoon, officers stated that voting had continued regardless of plenty of issues — together with violence at polling websites in Lagos, an assault in Nigeria’s north and stolen voting machines in a number of components of the nation. In a single state within the oil-rich Niger Delta, violent disruptions led voting to be postponed at 141 polling models.
“We’re decided that no Nigerian ought to and can be disenfranchised,” stated Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee Chairman Mahmood Yakubu in a information convention Saturday afternoon, saying that anybody who had been in line earlier than polls closed at 2:30 p.m. can be allowed to vote. “We’ve been responding to a number of the conditions as they come up, and we’re going to proceed to take action over evening.”
At at a polling station in Elegushi, an prosperous neighborhood in Lagos the place many stated they supported Obi, voters stated that thugs who arrived round 11 a.m. destroyed poll packing containers, threw chairs and beat up individuals who tried to take movies. However after the Nigerian Military arrived, individuals stated they returned to solid their ballots, chanting “We should vote!”
“There was ache earlier than, however my pleasure is that I ended up casting my vote,” stated a 38-year-old businesswoman who voted for Obi. She requested to be recognized solely by her first identify, Princess, as a result of she was afraid of the boys who she stated had torn her garments and crushed her earlier than destroying her telephone, which she’d been utilizing to take movies.
“I’m voting for my kids,” stated Princess, as she held her telephone, its display screen shattered. “Sufficient is sufficient.”
Chidi Nwagu, a 45-year-old physician with bruises and cuts on his arms, stated that he at first tried to battle again when he noticed the boys attacking the poll field. Greater than an hour after polls have been imagined to have closed, he nonetheless had not solid his poll however stated he had no plans to depart till he might achieve this.
Analysts warn that regardless of the hype he has acquired on social media, Obi faces lengthy odds. Among the many 18 presidential candidates on the poll, the opposite two high contenders are Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a 70-year-old former Lagos governor who has outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari’s backing, and Atiku Abubakar, a 76-year-old former vp on his sixth bid for the presidency.
Each males have benefits over Obi when it comes to fundraising and get-out-the-vote operations, and their respective events management the overwhelming majority of seats within the Nationwide Meeting.
At one polling station in Mushin, a working-class Lagos neighborhood, 35-year-old Kayode Coker stated that he thinks the Obi hype is overblown. The typical age at his polling station was between 50 and 70 years outdated. “The youths clamoring on social media? They don’t even have voter playing cards,” scoffed Coker, who stated he voted for Tinubu.
“We want somebody who understands the system,” stated the accountant. “It takes a thief to catch a thief.”
Requested if the “thief” to whom he referred was Tinubu — who has denied accusations of corruption through the years — Coker threw his fingers within the air: “I imply … that’s what I’m saying.”
Forward of the election and on Election Day, residents throughout Lagos shared an nearly common sense of exasperation. Voters — and those that stated they have been too fed as much as vote — stated the election seems like an inflection level after years of spiraling financial and safety crises which have made their lives exceedingly tough.
Regardless of Nigeria’s huge oil riches, greater than 60 % of individuals right here dwell in poverty. Below Buhari, the nation skilled two recessions, hovering inflation, huge youth unemployment and a proliferation of kidnappings and violence.
Injecting a brand new uncertainty into Election Day is a nationwide scarcity of money that has additional crippled Nigeria’s financial system in current weeks. The scarcity, which resulted from the federal government’s abrupt transfer to take away outdated financial institution notes from circulation and situation new ones, has led to huge strains at ATMs and banks and has devastated small companies.
Buhari final week stated the coverage would assist lay “a powerful basis without cost and truthful elections” in Nigeria, which has a protracted historical past of vote-buying. However some analysts warn that the disaster might produce other penalties as properly, together with growing frustration with the ruling get together and voter apathy.
Busayo Bamidele, a 30-year-old mom who makes a dwelling promoting trinkets and jewellery at a market on Lagos Island, stated she would normally take the bus to her dwelling state of Oyo to vote however has no cash to take action this 12 months due to the money scarcity. For the reason that money scarcity began a couple of weeks in the past, she stated she was barely promoting something and is now not making sufficient cash to feed herself or her kids repeatedly. At stalls round her, vendor after vendor stated the identical.
“I needed to borrow cash to purchase meals this morning … and since then, we have now not eaten the rest,” Bamidele stated on a current afternoon. “And so they say we must always come and vote?”
Ope Adetayo contributed to this report.
[ad_2]