Intense Coverage Follows Delayed Polls in Nigeria

Google

Pic­tured: Head­lines from CNN (top)the Guardian (low­er left) and DW (low­er right) fol­low­ing delayed polls in Nigeria

Pres­i­den­tial and par­lia­men­tary elec­tions sched­uled for Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 16 in Nige­ria were sud­den­ly post­poned by the Inde­pen­dent Nation­al Elec­tions Com­mis­sion (INEC) just hours before the polls were due to open.

The new date for the elec­tion is now Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 23. Also post­poned by a week is the March 2 guber­na­to­r­i­al elec­tions, now sched­uled for Sat­ur­day, March 9.

There are more than 70 pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates involved, all vying to lead the coun­try.  The two main can­di­dates, incum­bent, Moham­madu Buhari of the All Pro­gres­sive Party(APP), and for­mer vice-pres­i­dent Atiku Abubakar of People’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (PDP) have called for calm fol­low­ing the delay.

Nige­ria has the African continent’s biggest econ­o­my, is the most pop­u­lous nation with an esti­mat­ed 190 mil­lion peo­ple, as well as the continent’s top oil producer.

What­ev­er hap­pens, the out­come will have rip­ple effects through­out the con­ti­nent and the world. It’s the more rea­son plen­ty of ana­lysts are pay­ing atten­tion to what is tak­ing place.

Cov­er­age of the delayed polls, the rea­sons for the delay, has been intense. The esti­mate of how much this post­pone­ment could cost the Niger­ian gov­ern­ment, econ­o­my is astound­ing. Here is some analy­sis from Yahoo Finance, with writer Lolade Akin­murele stating:

“Every Niger­ian gen­er­al elec­tion since 2011 has been post­poned, but nev­er has it hap­pened on such short and abrupt notice, and with so much at stake than its delay from Feb­ru­ary 16 to now Feb­ru­ary 23, 2019.

Lead­ing econ­o­mist, Bis­mar­ck Rewane, rough­ly esti­mates that the last minute post­pone­ment of the Niger­ian elec­tions could cost Africa’s biggest econ­o­my around $10 bil­lion (N3.6 tril­lion at N360/$ exchange rate), 2 per­cent of 2018 gross domes­tic prod­uct(GDP).”

I checked out the fol­low­ing (The Guardian, BBC, DW, CNN, NPR) to see what they are say­ing about the delayed polls as follows:

The UK Guardian: Nige­ria post­pones elec­tion just hours before polls due to open

NPR News: Niger­ian Elec­tion Delayed Hours Before Polls Were Due To Open

CNN: Niger­ian par­ties con­demn last-minute elec­tion delay

Yahoo News: Nigeria’s Delayed Elec­tion: Loss­es Could Top Billions

DW: Nige­ria post­pones pres­i­den­tial, par­lia­men­tary elections