inherent wealth to exercise it. And the long, uncertain years of military dictatorship may be over.
Obasanjo will pass power to another civilian politician in April. There's a tentative stability here that
could turn into real hope.
When Nigerians elected their president they wanted a break with the corruptions that had dragged their
country down.
But do trust the people of Nigeria, its courts, press and NGOs, to see this one through. Hope, when you
talk to Nigerians, is a laugh of contempt for the old politicians and rancid old ways. Hope is a challenge
and imperative. It's down to the people to make their demands inescapable - to make sure this seamy
business doesn't fade away. Hope springs and, perhaps, hope resounds. Because there is a right to dissent.
Eventually, elections for the 36 State Governors and 990 Legislators in the 36 State Houses of Assembly were held on
14 April 2007 and elections for the President of Nigeria, 109 Members of the Senate and 360 Members of the House of
Representatives took place on 21 April 2007. It is disheartening that there was nothing to cheer about the elections.
Local monitoring groups and the international community in unison referred to the elections as being highly flawed.
The European Union observers in particular gave a damning verdict a few days after the elections:
The 2007 State and Federal elections fell far short of basic international and regional standards for
democratic elections. They were marred by very poor organisation, lack of essential transparency,
widespread procedural irregularities, substantial evidence of fraud, widespread voter disenfranchisement
at different stages of the process, lack of equal conditions for political parties and candidates and
numerous incidents of violence. As a result, the process cannot be considered to have been credible.
Given the lack of transparency and evidence of fraud, particularly in the result collation process, there can
be no confidence in the results of these elections. This is all the more regrettable since they were held in
an improved atmosphere in which freedoms of expression and assembly were broadly respected during
campaigning, the judiciary played a generally positive and independent role and the people showed
remarkable commitment to democracy, eagerly engaging in the electoral process and waiting patiently to
vote in often very difficult circumstances (emphasis not in original).
6 / 20
Convention