3. THE NIGERIAN 2007 ELECTIONS: BEFORE AND AFTER
General elections in Nigeria have always been controversial due to the endemic problems of electoral malpractices,
voting irregularities and rigging of poll results. The only exception is the 1993 Presidential Election which was locally
and internationally acclaimed as the best election Nigeria has ever conducted, and adjudged peaceful, free and fair by
all standards. The then military President Ibrahim Babangida, however, annulled the June 12, 1993 electoral victory of
Chief M.K.O. Abiola before the results became official because the success of the election as well as voters' turn out
was contrary to government projection. As it is the nature of past Nigerian dictators, the 1993 elections were
programmed to fail.
Nigerians everywhere anticipated the 2007 elections with great expectations because it was the first time in the
country's history that one civilian government was to be handing over the baton of power to another civilian
government, supposedly democratically elected. Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria has been bedevilled by
unrepentant military rulers who prey on Nigerians by truncating the previous transition programmes. The only
democracy-friendly military regimes Nigeria has had are those of General Olusegun Obasanjo (1976 - 1979) who
handed over power to a democratically elected government in 1979, and of General Abdulsalam Abubakar (1998 -
1999) who handed over power to Olusegun Obasanjo (as a civilian) on 29 May 1999 to usher in the Fourth Republic of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since the 2003 Presidential Election saw Obasanjo retaining power for a second term
in office, the transition programme was seen more as that of continuity of government. The real challenge of honesty for
the Obasanjo civilian rule was to conduct credible elections in 2007 and truthfully hand over power to another civilian
government but this turned out to be Obasanjo's Archilles' heel.
Shortly before the April polls, Peter Preston of the UK Guardian on 26 March 2007 aptly captured the mood of the
Nigerian populace about Obasanjo's willingness to relinquish power, his preparedness for the 2007 elections and the
aftermath:
President Obasanjo is stepping down on April 21 at the end of his second term. He didn't want to go. He
tried to alter the constitution and get himself a third term. He needed more time to finish slaying the
dragon of bribery, he said. But new Nigerian democracy wouldn't let him linger. And nor would his own
vice-president, Atiku Abubakar.
Nigeria is populous, talented, resourced and dynamic. It is (sic) has a natural leadership role, and the
5 / 20
Convention