Trust me,try to read everything. Even International Media knows Nigerians are solidly behind the Change banner.Sai Baba,Sai Buhari. Millions of Nigerians turned out to cast their votes
for president Saturday, in an election analysts
consider too close to call. But hundreds have also
been scared away from polling stations by Boko
Haram extremists.
President Goodluck Jonathan is facing off in this
tight race against former military ruler
Muhammadu Buhari in the first election in Nigerian
history where an opposition candidate has a
realistic chance of defeating an incumbent
president.
EPA
Long lines of voters queue outside a polling station
in Bauchi, Nigeria.
Nearly 60 million people have cards to vote.
Polling has been marred by violence and technical
problems in the tight presidential race. At least 41
people were killed Saturday amid an Islamic
insurgency in Nigeria's northeastern region. Boko
Haram fighters are suspected in these deaths, as
well as in thousands of other killings, according to
the Associated Press.
Vowing to disrupt elections, gun-toting Boko
Haram extremists forced voters to abandon polling
stations in three villages of northeastern Gombe
state, according to witnesses. Residents of the
town of Miringa have said Boko Haram torched
people's homes early Saturday and shot them as
they tried to flee. The armed group has called
democracy a corrupt Western concept.
Officials also told the AP that an additional 14
people, including Gombe state legislator Umaru Ali,
were killed in attacks on the town of Biri and
Dukku.
Two car bombs exploded at two polling stations in
south-central Enugu state but did not hurt voters,
police said. Police dismantled two other car bombs
at a primary school
The 57-year-old President Jonathan denied the
attacks, saying the governor of the state told him
there were no blasts. Jonathan's People's
Democratic Party (PDP) has ruled the most
populous African nation essentially unopposed for
16 years.
The opposition coalition led by 72-year-old Buhari,
the All Progressives Congress (APC) has gained
popularity by portraying itself as the face of change
for voters frustrated by the government's record on
corruption, as well as its inability to fight off the
insurgency waged by Boko Haram.
Analysts consider the election a pivotal historical
event. This is only the eighth election since
Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960.
Buhari has contested three previous elections, but
not come close to winning before.
The transformative event in Nigeria's political
landscape came two years ago when the main
opposition parties formed a coalition and for the
first time united behind one candidate, Buhari.
The official website of the Independent National
Electoral Commission was hacked, then soon
secured, according to officials who said the site
holds no sensitive material.
Thousands forced from their homes by the Islamic
uprising queued up to vote at a refugee camp in
Yola, the northeast Adamawa state capital which is
hosting as many refugees as its 300,000 residents.
The oil-rich and populous outh is deeply divided,
having become a political battleground since the
main opposition parties united in a coalition two
years ago, leading to dozens of defections from
Jonathan's party.
Polling stations opened late in most places. Voter
registration was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. , but
was ongoing in the afternoon. Men and women
lined up separately at many polling stations. Voters
are also electing 360 legislators to the House of
Assembly, where the opposition has a slight edge
over Jonathan's party.
"We have suffered enough, fled our homes after
many attacks," said Roda Umar, a housewife from
the former militant headquarters of Gwoza. "I'm
ready to endure the pain to vote."
Earlier, officials had rushed across the country
delivering ballot materials by trucks, speedboats,
motorcycles, mules and even camels, in the case of
a northern mountaintop village, according to
spokesman Kayode Idowu of the Independent
National Electoral Commission.
Despite the reported violence, voting across the
large nation was said to be largely peaceful,
although good humor gave way to anger as some
people waited hours to be registered to vote, only
to find that machines were not effectively reading
new biometric voting cards.
Even the president was affected. Three newly
imported card readers failed to recognize
Jonathan's fingerprints, nor those of his wife. He
returned two hours later and registered without the
machine, using visual identification. Biometric
cards and readers are being used for the first time
to discourage the voter fraud that has marred
previous elections
Afterward, Jonathan, wiping sweat from his brow,
urged his countrymen to be patient, telling
Channels TV: "I appeal to all Nigerians to be patient
no matter the pains it takes as long as if, as a
nation, we can conduct free and fair elections that
the whole world will accept."
Jonathan cast his ballot later in the day.
The problem was a hot topic on social media.
Voting will not end until the last person in line has
voted, electoral officials said. It will continue
Sunday in some areas with technical glitches.
These include some parts of Lagos, a metropolis of
20 million and Nigeria's commercial capital on the
Atlantic coast.
Jonathan and Buhari are front-runners among 14
candidates in the high-stakes contest to govern
Africa's richest nation. In addition to the Islamic
uprising, Nigeria is plagued by several other
problems: militants attacking petroleum
installations in the south as well as land disputes
across the middle of the country between semi-
nomadic Muslim cattle herders and mainly
Christian farmers.
In a country with a history of military coups and
bloodshed caused by politics, ethnic clashes, land
disputes, oil theft and, more recently, the Boko
Haram Islamic uprising, the election is important as
Nigeria consolidates its democracy.
The world is keenly interested, especially nervous
foreign investors as Nigeria is Africa's largest
destination for direct foreign investment. Its oil-
dependent economy has suffered from slashed
petroleum prices.
Nigeria's military announced Friday that it had
destroyed the headquarters of Boko Haram's so-
called Islamic caliphate and driven the insurgents
from all major areas in northeast Nigeria. There
was no way to verify the claim. Critics of Jonathan
have said recent military victories after months of
ceding territory to the Islamic extremists are a ploy
to win votes. The presidential campaign has denied
the charge.
The failure of Jonathan's administration to quell the
insurgency, which killed about 10,000 people last
year, has deeply angered Nigerians in the north.
International outrage has grown over another
failure — the rescue of 219 schoolgirls kidnapped
by Boko Haram nearly a year ago. The extremists
have abducted hundreds more since then, using
them as sex slaves and fighters.
Jonathan and Buhari on Thursday signed a peace
pledge and promised to accept the results of a free
and fair election.
The Islamic uprising has exacerbated relations
between Christians like Jonathan, who dominate
the oil-rich south, and Muslims like Buhari who are
the majority in the agricultural and cattle-herding
lands of the north. The population of 170 million is
almost evenly divided between Christians and
Muslims.
Thousands of Nigerians and foreign workers have
left the country amid fears of post-election
violence.
In 2011, there was no doubt that Jonathan had
swept the polls by millions of votes. This time
around, the race is much closer.
Compiled from reports by Associated Press, Al
Jazeera and BBC News
Source: www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/28/nigeria-presidential-elections/70588026/ |
APC COULD HAVE SODOMIZED ME The problem I have with the opposition is not about the congregations of APC. Absolutely not the point. Opposition is good for democracy but when it comes to the gathering of rebels, anarchists, rapists, peadophiles, pyschos, Godfathers, Born-To-Rule mentalists, power drunks, serial defectors and political prostitutes I have to scrutinize and put into subjections the motive beside such organization. I kept saying this, no Buharists was excited more than I do when CPC merged with ACN. Infact I still remember the date it was registered by INEC, which is 31/08/2013. I use to comment on Nairaland, Sahara Reporters, LIB, Facebook etc and would applaud them as our future. Everything wrong with Nigeria at that time was blamed on President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. He was the first citizen but was assumed as Nigeria's greatest enemy. I fall for that and I past my judgment on him. The day I started looking at the other side of the cheek was the moment I realize how I was conned and decieved. APC is such a smart occultic organization, it is far from being a political party. Remove three men from APC and the party is death. If APC were shakened like PDP it could have gone into extinction. Why wouldnt APC give us a leader without blood in his hands? Why a worn out granny full of terminal ideas. Why a coupist that abolished democracy. Why a serial loser. Why a retired and tired octogenarian with a football age. Why a certificateless ex-dictatorial despot? No political party can succeed without an internal democracy within it operation, not especially when it gets that power it bloodly needed. APC have shown to us it true colour by electing an Old timer as it flag bearer, thereby denying the most healthy ones the opportunity. Why did APC lose such aspirants like Kwankwanso, Rochas or even Atiku in a primary election and choose Buhari. The reason I gave is that APC have been hijacked by Tinubu. Tinubu is holding Nigeria in the palm of it hands. Nigeria is about to be hijacked and plundered by the devouring Lion of Bourdillion. Their Presidential Primary Election in Lagos was an orchestrated charade which had designed the candidacy of Buhari to be the outcome. I want to know why APC choose amongst the other well qualified candidates with their certificates intact for Buhari. The mantra they gave is that he will fight corruption. Corruption  That is when I received another lie. Who is Thieftnubu? I rest my case |
