Last year, 2023, was a big year for my country, Nigeria. It was the seventh general election in the country since democracy was restored in 1999. Election years are always very appreciative due to the dynamic contrast in ethnicity and religion in Nigeria. As Nigeria is the most populous black country on Earth and one of the major exporters of crude oil in Africa, its election politics always catch the interest of almost all African countries and also the international ones. Nigeria is regarded as the giant of Africa, even though many would say it is a sleeping giant (with which I agree).
The year 2023 started with a lot of showdowns, and this was the first time in a Nigerian election that people couldn't predict who was going to be the winner. From 1999 to 2015, the ruling party then which was the People's Democratic Party (PDP), had always won the presidential election and had a majority in the gubernatorial elections, but in 2015, the unthinkable happened as the ruling party lost to the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Since 2015, APC has been in the reins of power and has also enjoyed a majority at the legislative and state levels.
But the 2023 election was different, as this time the PDP was determined to wrestle powers from the APC, and another opposition party, the Labour Party, gained the support of the youth who were tired of the two main political parties, making the election more exciting. This time, it wasn't just the usual two-leg race, but it turned into a three-leg race as the parties fielded popular candidates that cut across the three major tribes of the country.
As I said earlier, the election period always makes people scared due to the violence that happens before, during, and after the election. And it wasn't different in 2023, as there were reports of skirmishes and violence in various parts of the country, but generally, the election was less bloody than some previous elections. Another thing that made the news was the use of electronic media to upload the results to each polling booth. This was the first time this was tried in a general election, and the reason for the implementation was to mitigate the amount of fraudulent activity in election collations.
However this novel method wasn't effective, and many polling booths had to rely on manual delivery of results, especially in remote parts of the country where there is little or no internet connectivity. Another reason given by the election body, which is called INEC, is that hackers tried to break in and disrupt the online process, and they decided to put off the online collaboration at some point to protect their servers from hackers. Although the two opposition parties refused to buy into the reports and said the lack of reliance on the online collation was a ploy for the ruling party, APC, to manipulate the elections,
Grateful for?
I believe one of the things many Nigerians are grateful for in 2023 was that the elections didn't turn into a tribal, religious, or civil war, as there were a lot of incidents and utterances that could have led to a full-blown war. At the end of the presidential election, the ruling party APC won by a slim margin, while the PDP candidate came in second and the LP candidate came in third. Although two main opposition parties refused to accept the outcome of the presidential elections, they took the candidate and the ruling party to court.
After months in court, in October, the Supreme Court of Nigeria finally declared the APC and its candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as winners of the 2023 presidential election. Even though the Supreme Court made the declaration, many supporters of the opposition parties continue to insist that the election was rigged.
What do I think?
Well, the 2023 election is the first of its kind in Nigeria, and the result showed that the votes were well shared among the 3 major candidates, but it wasn't without violence and irregularities. In the end, I feel the outcome couldn't have been different as the opposition parties failed to meet some of the clauses in the presidential election acts that could make their candidates winners.