Teaching Comparative

Selecting a candidate in Nigeria

How does one become president of Nigeria these days? It's a question that has to be answered without the benefit of precedent. Over the next few months, we and our students will have the opportunity to witness the process.

Here are some articles to help us begin the watching.

The first is a BBC, report followed by a news article, and an op-ed piece from Vanguard (Lagos). Then there's an article from The Namibian (Windhoek). And finally one from This Day (Lagos) on the military's role in the process.

ONE
The candidates to be Nigeria's leader

"The BBC's News website's Senan Murray in Nigeria profiles the strongest of the more than 40 contenders hoping to win the April 2007 presidential elections. Many are campaigning to be the ruling party's candidate - with a decision due later this month.

"Vice President Atiku Abubakar - A founding member of the ruling People's Democratic Party, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was suspended from the party after he was accused of diverting $125m to personal businesses...

"Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) - Former military ruler, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, or IBB as he is known among his admirers, is a well-known Nigerian power-broker...

"Mohammed Aliyu Gusau - Little is known about this shadowy character who was replaced as Nigeria's spymaster in May...

"Peter Odili - Sitting governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers State, Peter Odili, known as the "oil sheik" is also a member of the PDP...

"Donald Duke [below] - The governor of Nigeria's Cross River State, Donald Duke, "Mr Clean", is the youngest governor in the country and would become the youngest ever president, but first he has to win...


"Muhammadu Buhari - The main opposition party, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) is in disarray, which means that Muhammadu Buhari's influence is also on the wane...

"Ahmed Sani Yerima - Ahmed Sani Yerima's name is synonymous with Sharia in Nigeria...

"Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu - A reformed warlord, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu led the failed Biafra secession move that plunged Nigeria into a three-year civil war."


TWO
Babangida Unfolds Programmes Dec 13

"IN what is billed to be of strategic timing importance, former military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida will unfold his presidential declarative intention.

"The declaration, which is expected to hold in an atmosphere of pomp, sources have disclosed, is meant to address the possible backlash of moves by the hierarchy of PDP to scheme him out of the contest.

"Babangida, Vanguard has been reliably informed, has deliberately fixed his World Press Conference on his interest in next year's presidential election in Nigeria, just 72 hours to the PDP primaries..."

THREE
Nigeria: They Want our Job, but Who Decides Who Gets It

"It is possible that by the time you read this, the number of aspirants who want to succeed President Obasanjo could have reached 40. As I was writing this, the number stood at 23. And all of these are from one party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The chairman of the party was reported to have agonized that aspirants were getting too many!...

"These aspirants are actually asking Nigerians for the job at Aso Rock Villa [Nigeria's White House]. They want us to give them our mandate to be exercised on our behalf, and probably for our good. We are actually supposed to be their employers, their masters and, they, our servants. The big but is that we are not likely to be the ones that decide who among them will get the job. That decision is not going to be in the hands of Nigerians, but in the control of a tiny few, what I call a cartel. The primary system of all the parties makes such responsibility that of an electoral college of easily purchasable political merchandises.

"The system that produces the candidates is not open even to all the party members. Many are shut out by those who have the financial muscles to do so. Such racketeers are aided by the party chieftains who themselves are in season for easy kill. That is why there are killings, hues and cries everywhere about the primaries. The situation is not even different in the parties that have been criticizing the ruling PDP. And once that choice of who becomes a candidate in a party is removed from the ordinary members of the party, the choice of leadership for the rest of us is already short-circuited..."


FOUR
Fear over democracy in Nigeria as polls near

"Taiwo Raji is doing his bit to ensure elections go ahead as planned in Nigeria in five months: he's cooling the electronic voter registration unit he operates in the heart of Lagos using ice he bought from a corner shop.

"Raji's machine in the Surulere district is one of only 13 available to cover an area with half a million residents - less than a tenth of the number of units needed.

"And the machine stops working after a few hours in the tropical heat.

"Voter registration across Nigeria has been hindered by a lack of machines and technical hitches in one of a myriad problems endangering next April's polls in Africa's most populous nation.

"Raji, like many Nigerians, has misgivings.

"'There is no good reason why there are not enough machines. I think they are following a script,' he said as people in the queue grumbled about the wait while the device cooled down.

"'This could cause a postponement to the elections and the president might decide to elongate his tenure,' he said.

"The registration problems are stoking suspicions among Nigerians who three times in the last half century were promised democratic transitions only to see manipulation and army coups.

"President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose election in 1999 marked a return to democracy after three decades of almost continuous military rule, has promised free and fair elections.

"But sceptics fear that history may repeat itself…"

FIVE
Presidency: Can the Military Factor Swing It?

"At the last count, no fewer than seven retired red-neck officers have indicated their intentions to contest the presidential primaries of their respective parties in their drive to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo in office next year. But can the military establisment factor, which partly facilitated the election of Obasanjo in the firts term, swing the presidency in favour of another retired General?..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 10:20 AM