Compared to the previous two democratic elections, Nigerians came out in massive numbers Saturday to press their thumb print on the paper ballot and vote for the next president of Africa’s most populated country.
Even though the number of votes reported for Saturday are small percentages of the total number of registered voters in some states, voters at the polling places are saying the turnout is much bigger than previous years. People I spoke with at the different polling places inside University of Ibadan said they didn’t even vote in the 2007 or 2003 election because of the rampant rigging.
The smooth, peaceful operation of the National Assembly vote last Saturday, April 9th was a message to people that this year, the election process would be different–every vote would actually count. Students and adults inside UI made sure their votes counted by watching the INEC officials count each and every vote in the ballot box out loud. Many recorded everything on their camera phones.
The mood at every polling place was almost unanimously in support for the incumbent presidential candidate, Goodluck Jonathan. The official numbers are not completely in yet, but we should know by Monday who Nigeria’s next president will be. Nigerian politics (of the past) is overwhelmingly party politics and not about the candidate, but on Saturday people voted for Jonathan and not his political party PDP. Everywhere I went I heard people talking about Goodluck. “I need Goodluck for my country.” “We all want Goodluck.” I only heard people saying PDP while the INEC officials counted the PDP votes at each polling place. (Remember, on the ballot you put a thumb print next to the party, candidates names are not present.)
Everyone in Oyo state, the state I live in, is highly anticipating the upcoming gubernatorial election on April 26. It will be a true testament to Nigeria’s departure from party politics when we see if the PDP candidate, incumbent Alao Akala retakes the throne.
I am currently uploading a video about Saturday’s presidential election but with the slow pace of the internet, I am not able to upload it today. Look forward to it ASAP.
North of Lagos 
Titilayo,
Ilu roomu ko duro ni ojo kan! (Rome is not built in a day).
Nigeria will rise again. Im so delighted that we are waking up from our slumber, getting rid of all the evil leaders. NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE!
great post Cara..btw,why dont you try Glo HSI? I hear its good in Ibd …Cheers
I’m so glad things went well in your part of Ibadan.Unfortunately not everyone is so confident that this is a free and fair election, as evidenced by the video in this link
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=1980290353484&oid=51474767985&comments
Awesome and insightful post, Cara. So proud of you.
Hugs,
Michele
Titi, se o ri nkan ti on sele ni north of naijiriya.
Thank you for your sort. Very enlightening. Keep up the good work. lol
The election is definitely a testament that the people of Nigeria are waking up from their slumber and are beginning to make their leaders accountable to them.
Nigeria is still very far away from the promise land but the realisation and toiling on the path to the promise land is an impressive move from the people.
If the speaker of the national assembly, former governors, and the daughters of former presidents all lost the last election. I cannot contain my excitement; political offices in my country do not seem to be an exclusive right of a few anymore.
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Ku se, omo dadaa.
Thanks for the update Titi, I’m so glad that the elections seemed to have gone well, and like you said, the gubers will be a real test of how this works out in the nitty gritty, but I’m hopeful!