Nigeria’s presidential, parliamentary vote marked by long delays
Nigeria’s presidential election has been marked by long delays at some polling stations, which did not deter large crowds of voters hoping for a reset after years of worsening violence and hardship under outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.
In Lagos, Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) arrived at his polling centre on Saturday to cast his vote to pomp and pageantry by waiting supporters at 09:00 GMT. However, the fanfare did not seem to be echoed by voters’ choices elsewhere in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Tinubu’s base.
The APC and outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been credited for the ongoing cash and fuel crisis that has paralysed economic activity nationwide. Voters said they were showing their dissatisfaction at the polls.
“Everything that has happened in the past eight years has [been] draining for me,” Oyinkan Daramola, 29, told Al Jazeera. She declined to disclose whom she has voted for out of fear of possible reprisals but hinted at a disdain for the two dominant parties. This was a common feeling in various locations visited by Al Jazeera across six local government areas in Lagos.
“We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Daramola said.
Africa’s most populous nation is struggling with insurgencies in the northeas2t, an epidemic of kidnappings for ransom, conflict between herders and farmers, shortages of cash, fuel and power, as well as deep-rooted corruption and poverty.
In Lagos, Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) arrived at his polling centre on Saturday to cast his vote to pomp and pageantry by waiting supporters at 09:00 GMT. However, the fanfare did not seem to be echoed by voters’ choices elsewhere in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Tinubu’s base.
The APC and outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been credited for the ongoing cash and fuel crisis that has paralysed economic activity nationwide. Voters said they were showing their dissatisfaction at the polls.
“Everything that has happened in the past eight years has [been] draining for me,” Oyinkan Daramola, 29, told Al Jazeera. She declined to disclose whom she has voted for out of fear of possible reprisals but hinted at a disdain for the two dominant parties. This was a common feeling in various locations visited by Al Jazeera across six local government areas in Lagos.
“We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Daramola said.