Nigerian Elections: Dictatorship anew with Buhari?

Image fron Nigeria in a rally to protect Nigerian Electoral Laws/Image:Al Jazeera

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has once again re-elected as the President of the country, Africa’s top economy and top oil producing country. The election has already witnessed some delay in days. Buhari has won the elections by 56 percent of votes as against 41 as against his opponent, the ex-Vice President cum businessman, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). However, when the results came out which declared Buhari to be the winner, Atiku rejected the results and he promised to case a file in the court.

Buhari has vowed to do many things, like resurrecting the economy from the economic setback back in 2016 which was happened mainly because of the age-old Islamic Insurgency that killed many civilians in the North-east of the country. The new administration will focus on security, reconstructing the economy and fighting back corruption.

Atiku has not in any way accepted the victory of Buhari stating that the counting process must have undergone some form of malpractices and denying the results announced. He has in no way accepted his defeat and challenged the opposition party that he will take this matter to the court. However, Buhari to this has urged his supporters to be calm and not disgrace the opposition party. 

Banners promoting President elect Muhammadu Buhari /Image:NewTimes

The APC has said that the opposition was trying to demean the opposition party. The country has a record of six decades of Independence marked by corruption, military rule, coups, etc. these accusations have put up the whole nation into unrest. Buhari has already cautioned the government of not doing anything that may destabilize nation’s democracy. Many people are already aware of his dictatorship and not want him back to stand to witness one another phase of dictatorship.

Viewers like the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union and the United Nations asked all parties to wait for the final results, before filing complaints.

Buhari campaigned by promising to fight corruption repairing Nigeria’s broken roads and rail networks. Atiku on the other hand aimed to double the size of the economy by $900 billion by 2025, privatise the state oil companies expanding the role of the private sector.

The voting was been delayed prior to five hours before the process started just to ensure free and fair elections. There was a major setback in the environment as many voters were offended of this decision. In the Africa’s largest democratic exercise event was marked by violence. 47people were killed during the voting process and after it, as reports have shown. More than 250 million are been killed since the start of the campaigning process in October. The vote was victimized by smart card readers which authenticate voters’ fingerprints.   

Buhari after the reschedule of the elections even ordered military and law agency to deal brutally with those who wanted to disrupt the election process. Besides, he was almost sure from before that he was in anyway, going to win the elections. Sources reveal that he had used some kind of  malpractices during campaigning and polling  to make himself win.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Kootneeti Team

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Priya Sarma

Priya Sarma is a Former Research Intern at The Kootneeti (Feb 2019 - March 2019). She can be reached at priyasarma187@gmail.com

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