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Is it time to ‘demilitarise’ Nigeria’s elections?

Nigeria’s leaders need to get replace the military with police whose mission is to protect, not prey on, the public

Fake results are circulating, vote rigging claims are mounting and tensions escalating as Nigerians wait for elections results. (Photo by Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Tense wait for Nigeria’s election results

Fake results are circulating, vote rigging claims are mounting and tensions escalating as Nigerians wait for elections results

Polling clerks start to count the votes at a polling station after completing the voting process of the general election in Lagos, Nigeria on February 25, 2023. Nigeria will elect the President and Vice President and members of the Senate and House of Representatives. (Photo by Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Nigeria awaits first results after tight election

The voting was carried out mostly peacefully, despite some ransacked polling stations and long delays

Independent National Electoral Commission Nigeria

Nigeria seizes ‘vote-buying’ cash hours before polls

Police said that during a stop and search operation in the Rivers State, it had arrested a lawmaker with a bag of cash it suspected was for buying votes

An aerial view of trucks parked on the road side waiting to get access into Tincan port in Apapa, Lagos, on January 11, 2021. – At the beginning of 2020, just before the coronavirus crisis, 99% of exports and more than 89% of imports passed through the seas, almost exclusively via Lagos. 
After oil, the port of Lagos, which stretches from Apapa to Tin Can island, is the second largest source of income for the African giant.  (Photo by Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP) (Photo by BENSON IBEABUCHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Nigeria’s economy short circuits despite oil gains

Africa’s largest oil producer has not been able to cash in fully on the price rally because of lacklustre production and its reliance on imported fuel

Crafting credible election commissions in West Africa

There are several ways West African countries can strengthen their election management, but election commissions must constantly evolve if they are to oversee elections that…

Failing his people: A portrait of President Muhammadu Buhari in Lagos. He has a duty to operate within the rule of law, but has disobeyed numerous court orders. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP)

Rule of law? What rule of law?

Nigeria’s leader ignores court orders to release detainees and provide details of corrupt actions

It is safe to say that, given the risk factor involved, the pandemic has exacerbated online activities, and even if, as the severity of its effect decreases (when a vaccine has been developed, for instance), people return physically to their places of work, the current expansion of online work practices means it is likely to remain so to a significant degree.

WhatsApp played a big role in the Nigerian election. Not all of it was bad

In the recent Nigerian election WhatsApp was used to mislead voters. But it also strengthened democracy in other areas

A voter fills in her ballot during Nigeria’s governorship and state assembly election in Karu, Nigeria. (Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde)

Nigeria says governship vote ‘inconclusive’ in six states

Local elections are fiercely contested in Nigeria, as governors generally have more impact on ordinary people’s day-to-day lives

A man raises a ballot paper during the counting of governorship and state assembly election results in Lagos, Nigeria. (Reuters/Adelaja Temilade)

Nigeria vote tensions rise as counting suspended in volatile state

Most domestic and international observers said last month’s presidential vote was credible, despite well-documented problems. But tensions remain high

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, will officially announce the outcome from early next week. (Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

Nigerians wait for election results as polls close

Results from nearly 120 000 polling stations were being collated at local and state level before being sent to the capital, Abuja, on Sunday

Governments are also increasingly trying to make the use of online services and social media more difficult generally. (Reuters)

Nigerian political parties are weaponising fake news

According to new research, the volume of disinformation and fake news in the run-up to the Nigerian election is unprecedented

The way to combat religious fundamentalist violence is not through further secularisation or attempts to extinguish religious thoughts altogether. (Nichole Sobecki/ AFP)

Boko Haram displaced feel forgotten amid Nigeria election fever

More than 27 000 people have been killed since the Boko Haram conflict began in 2009 and some 1.8-million others are still displaced

In this Q&A, Crisis Group’s Nigeria expert Nnamdi Obasi says the commission and other authorities must act now to win back trust and reduce risks of violence. (AFP)

Winning back trust in Nigeria’s rescheduled elections

Only hours before polls were to open, Nigeria’s electoral commission postponed elections scheduled for February 16 by a week

The election is the sixth to be held in the 20 years since Nigeria returned to civilian rule after decades of military government. (Getty)

Nigeria counts cost of postponed presidential poll

The two main candidates — President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar — both called for calm as a one-week delay was announced

Atiku Abubakar and incumbent Muhammadu Buhari (left) are the two frontrunners in Nigeria’s presidential race. (Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye)

Nigeria’s 2019 election: a two-horse race with uninspiring candidates

Despite the large number of aspirants for Nigeria’s 2019 elections, women and young people remain underrepresented

According to a report in June by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC-based think-tank, Nigeria has overtaken India as the world’s poverty capital. (George Osodi/Bloomberg)

‘Politicians have failed us’: The despair of Nigeria’s poor

Ahead of Nigeria’s presidential elections next year, residents of informal settlements say they expect little to change

The writer hopes that South Africans will be racially blind and economically awake as they make their mark.
(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

As Kenya’s votes, its youth are more than just a cliché

It can seem like a cliché when people talk about the power of the youth demographic bulge across Africa.

Expectations of the stern and resolute general are sky high.

Dignified Nigerian election should inspire other nations to follow suit

Democracy is not just about legality … it is about legitimacy. Elections must offer genuine choice.

Paper trail: President Muhammadu Buhari

Root out electoral graft, Buhari

His promise to tackle corruption in Nigeria should begin with political party funding.