Nigeria’s presidential election has been marked by long delays at some polling stations, which did not deter large crowds of voters hoping for a reset after years of worsening violence and hardship under outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari. Africa’s most populous nation is struggling with insurgencies in the northeast, an epidemic of kidnappings for ransom, conflict between herders and farmers, shortages of cash, fuel and power, as well as deep-rooted corruption and poverty.
In Lagos, Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) arrived at his polling centre on Saturday to cast his vote to pomp and pageantry by waiting supporters at 09:00 GMT. However, the fanfare did not seem to be echoed by voters’ choices elsewhere in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Tinubu’s base. The APC and outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been credited for the ongoing cash and fuel crisis that has paralysed economic activity nationwide. Voters said they were showing their dissatisfaction at the polls.
“Everything that has happened in the past eight years has [been] draining for me,” Oyinkan Daramola, 29, told Al Jazeera. She declined to disclose whom she has voted for out of fear of possible reprisals but hinted at a disdain for the two dominant parties. This was a common feeling in various locations visited by Al Jazeera across six local government areas in Lagos. “We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Daramola said.
Some states were expected to announce results on Sunday, and the final tally from all 36 states plus the federal capital Abuja was expected within five days of voting. National Assembly seats are also on the ballot in this election.
At a press briefing on Saturday evening, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Mahmood Yakubu said six biometric machines had been stolen in northern Katsina State and two in southern Delta State. He also acknowledged the delays but said voters would be able to cast their ballots. “The election will hold, and no one will be disenfranchised,” he said. Yakubu said at a later briefing that voting would take place on Sunday in several wards in Yenagoa that had experienced severe disruption on Saturday.
Despite the delays, many Nigerians were determined to cast their ballots. Morayo Ajayi, a 22-year-old undergraduate student in Akwa Ibom, said she is determined to vote for her candidate no matter how late it got. “I don’t care if I have to sleep here, but I’m going vote for Peter Obi today,” she said. “Of course, I’ve been waiting for hours, but I don’t mind the wait. I will see this to the end,” she said.
In Elegushi, an affluent area of Lagos, 54-year-old banker Osho Adekunle waited in the queue for five hours. He is voting for Tinubu because of his “antecedents” in Lagos, a fulcrum on which Tinubu’s supporters based his campaign. For Adekunle, the 1993 annulled election, which saw Moshood Abiola, a Yoruba like himself and Tinubu, being denied his mandate, inspired his choices there. “We that know about the history are not voting on sentiment but on practicality,” he said.
There were reports of scattered violent incidents on Saturday, though not on the scale seen in previous elections in the country of more than 200 million people. Buhari, a retired army general, is stepping down after serving the maximum eight years allowed by the constitution but failing to deliver on his pledge to bring back order and security across Nigeria, Africa’s top oil-producing country.
The contest to succeed him is wide open, with candidates from the two parties alternating in power since the end of army rule in 1999 facing an unusually strong challenge from a minor party candidate popular among young voters. An INEC official holds up a ballot paper during the counting process at a polling station in Egbeda, Lagos, during Nigeria’s presidential and general election [Benson Ibeabuchi/AFP]
In northeast Borno State, suspected fighters from the Boko Haram group fired mortar shells in the rural Gwoza area, killing one child, wounding four others and disrupting voting, army sources said. In Abuja, a team from the anticorruption Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was attacked by thugs just after arresting a man on suspicion of paying for a group of people’s votes using a banking app, the commission said.
In most areas, however, the day appeared to have unfolded peacefully despite frustrations over the delays. In Aguolu, Obi’s hometown in his native Anambra, voting went smoothly. EFCC officials stopped by to monitor voting there for any possible inducement of voters. Across parts of Onitsha, Anambra’s commercial capital, and portions of nearby Asaba, the administrative capital of Delta state in the Niger Delta region, many old and young people said they were voting for Obi. This despite Delta state Governor Ifeanyi Okowa being deputy governor on the PDP’s ticket alongside Atiku Abubakar, whom Obi ran with in 2019.
Nigerians have expressed their determination to make their voices heard despite delays and disruptions at some polling stations. Many youths across Nigeria are supporting Labour Party candidate Peter Obi’s campaign while others are backing All Progressives Congress’ Bola Tinubu or People’s Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar due to their “antecedents”.
Despite scattered violent incidents reported on Saturday – including mortar shells fired by suspected Boko Haram fighters in Borno State – most areas appear to have unfolded peacefully despite frustrations over delays. INEC’s Yakubu reassured voters that no one would be disenfranchised and that voting would take place on Sunday in several wards that had experienced disruption on Saturday.
With results expected within five days of voting from all 36 states plus Abuja’s federal capital, Nigerians are hopeful that this election will bring about much needed change after years of worsening violence and hardship under outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.