Nigeria’s historic election just proved the world wrong
For months, there were doubts that Nigeria would survive 2015.
For months, there were doubts that Nigeria would survive 2015.
They
came in droves, men, women, young, old. Mothers with babies strapped
tightly to their backs, pregnant women, the elderly, some who could
barely walk unaided.
They waited
patiently for sometimes seven, eight hours in the scorching sun. In
parts of the country where it poured down with rain, they stood, barely
shielded under makeshift umbrellas to over come doubts that Nigeria will divide
Headlines fixated on the winds of Boko Haram’s terrorism combining with the ethnic and religious tensions that divide the north and the south to create a storm of rampant violence that would tear the country apart.
There was the expectation that Nigeria would burst into flames as a result of bullets being used to force political change instead of ballots, especially considering the massive election violence that erupted four years ago.
But over the weekend, Nigeria, a country of 170 million, gave the world a largely peaceful and credible election, with its most transparent vote to date. Retired Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the presidency. To Jonathan’s credit, he called the 72-year-old Buhari on Tuesday to concede. No doubt it is the mark of a functioning democracy when a losing candidate respects the results of a democratic election. Buhari’s victory was decisive: He won 54 percent of the vote to Jonathan’s 45 percent.
Nigerians took to social media to congratulate Buhari and express relief at holding a vote without violence. Some took the opportunity to take Western reporters to task for their skepticism:
