As polls closed Saturday afternoon, officers mentioned that voting had continued regardless of numerous issues — together with violence at polling websites in Lagos, an assault in Nigeria’s north and stolen voting machines in a number of elements of the nation. In a single state within the oil-rich Niger Delta, violent disruptions led voting to be postponed at 141 polling models.
“We’re decided that no Nigerian ought to and could be disenfranchised,” mentioned Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee Chairman Mahmood Yakubu in a information convention Saturday afternoon, saying that anybody who had been in line earlier than polls closed at 2:30 p.m. could be allowed to vote. “Now we have been responding to a few of the conditions as they come up, and we’re going to proceed to take action over night time.”
At at a polling station in Elegushi, an prosperous neighborhood in Lagos the place many mentioned they supported Obi, voters mentioned that thugs who arrived round 11 a.m. destroyed poll bins, threw chairs and beat up individuals who tried to take movies. However after the Nigerian Military arrived, individuals mentioned they returned to forged their ballots, chanting “We should vote!”
“There was ache earlier than, however my pleasure is that I ended up casting my vote,” mentioned a 38-year-old businesswoman who voted for Obi. She requested to be recognized solely by her first title, Princess, as a result of she was afraid of the lads who she mentioned had torn her garments and overwhelmed her earlier than destroying her cellphone, which she’d been utilizing to take movies.
“I’m voting for my youngsters,” mentioned Princess, as she held her cellphone, its display screen shattered. “Sufficient is sufficient.”
Chidi Nwagu, a 45-year-old physician with bruises and cuts on his arms, mentioned that he at first tried to struggle again when he noticed the lads attacking the poll field. Greater than an hour after polls have been alleged to have closed, he nonetheless had not forged his poll however mentioned he had no plans to go away till he might accomplish that.
Analysts warn that regardless of the hype he has obtained on social media, Obi faces lengthy odds. Among the many 18 presidential candidates on the poll, the opposite two high contenders are Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a 70-year-old former Lagos governor who has outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari’s backing, and Atiku Abubakar, a 76-year-old former vp on his sixth bid for the presidency.
Each males have benefits over Obi by way of fundraising and get-out-the-vote operations, and their respective events management the overwhelming majority of seats within the Nationwide Meeting.
At one polling station in Mushin, a working-class Lagos neighborhood, 35-year-old Kayode Coker mentioned that he thinks the Obi hype is overblown. The common age at his polling station was between 50 and 70 years previous. “The youths clamoring on social media? They don’t even have voter playing cards,” scoffed Coker, who mentioned he voted for Tinubu.
“We want somebody who understands the system,” mentioned the accountant. “It takes a thief to catch a thief.”
Requested if the “thief” to whom he referred was Tinubu — who has denied accusations of corruption through the years — Coker threw his palms within the air: “I imply … that’s what I’m saying.”
Forward of the election and on Election Day, residents throughout Lagos shared an virtually common sense of exasperation. Voters — and people who mentioned they have been too fed as much as vote — mentioned the election seems like an inflection level after years of spiraling financial and safety crises which have made their lives exceedingly troublesome.
Regardless of Nigeria’s huge oil riches, greater than 60 % of individuals right here reside in poverty. Beneath Buhari, the nation skilled two recessions, hovering inflation, huge youth unemployment and a proliferation of kidnappings and violence.
Injecting a brand new uncertainty into Election Day is a nationwide scarcity of money that has additional crippled Nigeria’s financial system in latest weeks. The scarcity, which resulted from the federal government’s abrupt transfer to take away previous financial institution notes from circulation and challenge new ones, has led to huge traces at ATMs and banks and has devastated small companies.
Buhari final week mentioned the coverage would assist lay “a powerful basis totally free and honest elections” in Nigeria, which has an extended historical past of vote-buying. However some analysts warn that the disaster might produce other penalties as properly, together with growing frustration with the ruling celebration and voter apathy.
Busayo Bamidele, a 30-year-old mom who makes a residing promoting trinkets and jewellery at a market on Lagos Island, mentioned she would normally take the bus to her residence state of Oyo to vote however has no cash to take action this 12 months due to the money scarcity. For the reason that money scarcity began just a few weeks in the past, she mentioned she was barely promoting something and is now not making sufficient cash to feed herself or her youngsters repeatedly. At stalls round her, vendor after vendor mentioned the identical.
“I needed to borrow cash to purchase meals this morning … and since then, now we have not eaten the rest,” Bamidele mentioned on a latest afternoon. “They usually say we must always come and vote?”
Ope Adetayo contributed to this report.
