Tweets for Change

Amara Nwankpa, a young internet-savvy Nigerian, has been traveling between polling stations in the past few weeks to encourage people to come out and vote. Despite the cancellation of the election for the National Assembly last Saturday, Nwankpa continued to travel and promote activism as well as to ask people to keep an eye out for potential corruption or flaws in the system so that Nigeria could have a clean vote in order to keep moving in their journey towards democracy. Amaru would best have been identified by his t-shirt that read "Light Up Nigeria" and the cell-phone that never left his hand. At one polling station, Amaru took a moment to speak to the crowd saying, "What we're doing essentially is encouraging young people to participate and to do the right thing. This election in Nigeria -- the vote, it's all of us -- government is us too." After the European Union characterized Nigeria's last election that occurred in 2007 as the worst ever witnessed in the world Amaru became determined to make change in his country and cleanse the election process riddled with fraud, crime, and violence. Amaru uses the internet to reach as many people as possible (which is a promising strategy given that Nigeria has some 43 million internet users). One of his tweets read, "In the end, it is not the bodyguards of the guns, or the aircrafts or bombs that give you power. It is the people". After the voting delay last weekend Amaru tweeted, "Saturday was an #epicfail. We won't lower our standards for credible elections tho". At the very least, Nwankpa has stimulated discussion in his country and others; "It makes me feel we can make a change. We can move things in the right direction. It's not perfect yet. Our democracy is still young but there's only one way to grow it and that's participation."

Amaru Nwankpa is a fantastic example of positive, respectful, peaceful, and progressive political participation in Nigeria. In the past few months it seems that the only stories being published about Nigeria have been related to some form of violence in coalition with the election process; bombings, shooting, threats, exc. This demonstrates how the future of Nigeria and it's democracy rests in the hands of the youth and that technology represents a good way to get the message out about participation in coming elections. Hopefully this symbolizes some type of political reform within Nigeria, or at least in some of the members of the rising generations.

Election Season. Does this have to mean violence?

This past weekend Nigerians voted for their 360 House of Representatives and their 109 Senators. Of course this means violence amongst the people. Two separate bombs exploded in a polling station and a collation center in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday. The first bombing was at a voting station in the city of Maiduguri; no deaths have been reported but their has been a number of injuries. The second explosion was in the same city, but at a collation center. It was not immediately clear how many people died. Many are worried that this is only the beginning of the violence as we move further along in the election process. Also in Maiduguri, a group of young people set a government building on fire. A new election chief promised "free and fair" elections this year, but this years election has already been affected by bombings, assassinations, and other problems which have delayed the vote. Many people are beginning to worry that the government may just take away voting all together.

This shows the possibility of the military possibly stepping up and the Nigerians having some of their democratic rights being taken away. Like we talked about this previous week in class, Nigeria has shown a cycle of military then democratic leader. Could this be in the near future for Nigeria? If the government does decide to get rid of the election all together, what happens next? Nigeria has worked hard for the democratic rights they have now, if they get them taken away haw are the Nigerian people going to react? A whole bunch of questions with answers we will just have to wait to be answered.

PDP losses ground in parliamentary elections

Opposition parties gained ground against the current ruling party, the People's Democratic Party, in the parliamentary elections held Saturday. The speaker of the House of Representatives, a PDP member, Dimeji Bankole, lost his seat to Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. 

While Action Congress of Nigeria swept most states in the southwest region of the county, the PDP did manage to win some seats. In the southeast, the PDP gained three senatorial seats, but lost a seat in the northern region of the country to the Congress for Progress Change. 

All results are not yet in, as it takes 48 hours after voting closes to receive final totals. The country is still waiting for results from some of the more rural regions of the country. 

“The pattern we have seen is the confirmation of the PDP’s strength in the southeast and the expansion of the Action Congress in the southwest,” Jibrin Ibrahim said. “In the north the CPC is showing strength.”

The voting for the 109 seat Senate and the 360 seat Horse of representatives is a prelude to the presidential election on April 16. The election will see President Goodluck Jonathan face 18 rivals, including former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. On April 26, voters will chose the governors and legislatures in the 36 states.

These results show that the people of Nigeria are getting tired of the nonstop violence and corruption of their country. The parliamentary results also show that the country is becoming even more divided, as certain regions of the state lean even more heavily to one side or the other. The existing cleavages in the country and the current elections create an even more volatile situation that should be closely monitored. 

Mass Car Crash Kills Many

As Nigeria closes in on one of the most important elections the nation has ever undergone, much violence, and voting issues have caused many setbacks and deaths in the past few weeks. According to witnesses, at least twenty people died as the result of a car crash in which a fuel tanker rammed into the back of multiple cars waiting in line at a police checkpoint in Narabi located in central Nigeria. The crash occurred last Friday as people were waiting between the borders of the Plateau and Bauchi states in the "middle belt", an incredibly fertile region of Nigeria. Some twenty cars exploded into flames as a result of the crash within the two lane highway. The crash could have been prevented had it not been for the upcoming elections. The roadblock was only set up temporarily as part of heightened security measures taken in the previous week and the next two weeks. According to officials Nigeria is prone to lethal car crashes because of the poor quality and maintenance of roads and because many people often ignore traffic regulations and speed limits.

This horrific car crash is a testament to many issues currently occurring in Nigeria. At it's most basic, it is a reflection of common policy issues as many people completely neglect traffic regulations which are implemented to make the roads safer for drivers. In addition it is a reflection of a combination of common policy issues and faltering economic status and how the state distributes it's capital. The state needs to do a more effective job distributing it's money to lesser developed regions to improve road conditions to prevent mass casualties as a result of car crashes like this one. Lastly, this example is a reflection of political participation in Nigeria. While most countries do take extra precautions in times of elections, had it not been for the ensuing violence as a result of the presidential elections, the country would not have needed to set up police checkpoints such as this one.

Nigeria's Economic Growth in 2011

Within the next three year, many are thinking Nigeria could lead Africa with the largest economy due to their growth potential. Some are even saying that by 2013, Nigeria could even overtake South Africa in becoming the continent's largest economy. According to the Regional Head of Research in Africa for Standard Chartered Bank, Razia Khan, many signs are pointing to Nigeria having no problem doing this. For example, the population of Nigeria is nearly three times as large as South Africa's population, and nearly 42 percent of the population of Nigeria is under the age of 14 versus the 31 percent in South America. This means they are a young population and not only have many people working now, but also, many young people who will be ready or are working now and can work for a while. According to Khan, "the capacity of the Nigerian economy to absorb a rapidly growing working-age population will be key to achieving the 2013 growth projection." Nigeria's GDP is projected to grow about 7 per cent this year. Also, the large amount of natural resources has attracted many private investors. Although, there are many natural resources, many non-oil sectors of the economy are expected to remain the major drivers of growth, especially agriculture, wholesale and retail trade. The only thing which cold keep Nigeria of achieving this goal, is if they are not careful with how they handle their economic growth.

This shows that even with all the violence and crime, Nigeria as a country is growing more economically. It also shows that even though Nigeria is blessed with such a wanted commodity, they have not been plagued with "dutch disease" and are still focused on many other sectors of the economy instead of oil and natural gas.

Voting delayed in Nigeria

"Missing materials" is the cause for the reason of the voting delay for parliamentary elections in Nigeria, officials say. Polls opened on Saturday, but were suddenly postponed for another two days, as not all areas of the country, including the capital city, had received the necessary items. This is a major blow to the country, which already has a history of electoral chaos and fraud.

A spokesperson for Muhammadu Buhari, the major opponent to Goodluck Jonathan, thinks sabotage was involved. He claims that Jonathan's party is afraid to have people come and vote. Others believe the delay was caused by materials not arriving from outside of the country in time. A statement has been realized claiming there will be no problem proceeding with elections on Monday.

Lines of people in the country's two largest cities became distraught. Gunshots were fired in the volatile Niger Delta raised worries of violence.

The fact that the country cannot coordinate it's own elections effectively is a testament to the current state Nigeria is in. In other countries we have studied, we haven't seen such mass chaos and unorganization from the highest levels of government. It would be very interesting to look at Mexico during their next election, to see how their government handles elections during a time of turmoil. I think that the two countries are comparable in terms of violence and unrest, but it's hard to believe that Mexico wouldn't be able to carry out an election. Hopefully Nigeria can pull itself together enough for the presidential elections next week.