International Conference on the Nigerian Elections

DEC. 11, 2009, WESTIN HOTEL, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

Nigeria is preparing for another election cycle, which will begin in Feb. 2010 with state government elections in Anambra, a state in the southeast of the country. Anambra sparked the most violent and protracted scenes of ballot rigging and resistance in 2007, and the conduct of elections there in 2010 will represent a test case for national elections that will follow in the rest of the country.

There are indications that the problems that bedeviled elections in the country in 2007 are still present in Anambra. Already, violence has been reported as the various political actors jostle for control of the state in 2010. The signs are ominous.

The Anambra elections will provide the first signs of how orderly or disruptive the conduct of nationwide elections in other parts of the country will be. In view of the importance of these events to regional stability in Africa, the Achebe Colloquium, Dec. 11, 2009, will explore the 2010 Nigerian elections.

Conference themes will include problems, prospects and pathologies of 50 years of Nigerian independence; strategic interests of Nigeria and the United States; challenges of the Anambra Elections in 2010; lessons learned and problems ahead in monitoring Nigerian elections; strategies for free and fair polls in the 2010 elections and beyond.

The Achebe Colloquium will bring together officials from the Nigerian government, the United Nations, the European Union, members of Nigerian civil society, international human rights organizations, election-monitoring groups, and research and policy institutions to deliberate on the importance of credible polls in sustaining Nigeria’s fragile democracy.

http://www.brown.edu/web/achebe-colloquium/index.html