Felsunseg: NIGERIA made history in its 2015 presidential elections. In the March 28-29th vote, deemed mostly free and fair, Muhammadu Buhari became the first opposition leader to eject an incumbent president at the ballot box. Goodluck Jonathan, whose People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been in charge since the end of military rule in 1999, accepted his loss with grace. He will step down in May, leaving his long-time political foe in charge of Africa’s biggest economy and its most populous nation. How did this democracy come of age?
Nigeria is a rich country full of poor people. Despite pumping roughly 2m barrels of oil per day, most of its population lives in abject poverty. Much of the blame for that falls on elected politicians, who have spent years lining their pockets with the booty. Billions disappear from the accounts of the opaque state- owned oil company. A rainy-day savings account was depleted even when prices were high. Even worse, government members are accused of involvement in industrial-scale theft, which plunders 100,000 barrels of black gold a day. If corruption and theft were not enough, Mr Jonathan’s government also failed utterly to stop Boko Haram, whose six-year-old military campaign has cost 15,000 lives. Workings of the country's electric power network is little better than in the days of the military junta, millions of children are out of school, and healthcare is a disgrace. Each of those issues is a shameful indictment of the PDP, which has had both the time and money to make improvements.
A lack of political accountability may have had something to do with that poor performance. In the past the PDP faced little opposition. Rival parties were small and appealed to narrow regional and ethnic interests. Mr Buhari, who swept to power in a coup in the 1980s, had contested three previous elections without coming close. His chances changed in 2013, when four of those parties merged to form the All Progressives Congress (APC). On this ticket, the dictator-turned-democrat rode the wave of national discontent like a pro. His reputation as tough on security and corruption grew legendary. A clever campaign positioned him as the face of “change” for Nigeria. Once this might not have mattered; the government would have rigged its way to victory regardless. This time, biometric-voting technology made fixing the outcome more difficult. Mr Buhari, who hails from the predominantly Islamic north, won overwhelming margins from devoted disciples there. Yet his party also made unprecedented inroads into the central and south-western zones. That dispelled conventional narratives about sectarian voting, and showed that Nigerians, not just northerners, were ready for new direction.
A peaceful handover will be transformative for Nigeria. For the first time its people feel they have the power to hold their politicians to account. It will also send a meaningful signal across Africa. After years of progress, democracy on the continent has slid of late. Leaders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and the Republic of Congo have made moves to extend their terms. There is much they could learn from Mr Jonathan, who did more in standing down than he ever managed in leadership. http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/04/economist-explains-2?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ee/hownigeriawonitsfirstdemocraticpowertransfer |