Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and the continent’s largest economy, opened more than 170,000 polling stations this morning without registering any serious incidents beyond a few delays on the day of an election from which the successor of the President Muhammadu Buhari, in power since 2015.
Thus, Buhari will retire after having exhausted his second consecutive term of four years allowed by the Constitution.
Election day passes calmly, although there have been some delays in the opening of polling stations.
“These delays should not have happened. However, I will wait and exercise my civic responsibility. I am 79 years old and I still dream of having a better country,” Nigerian Tunde Adebagun told GLM as he awaits the announcement. opening of his polling station in the Ajegunle area of Lagos.
“To my surprise, the (electoral) officials have not yet arrived,” he added.
The situation was different in the Lekki area, also in the city of Lagos, where polling stations were open this morning, but there were still not many voters.
“We hope people will start coming soon,” Adebimpe Salami, an employee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), told EFE.
Nearly 93.5 million people are registered to vote this Saturday at more than 176,800 polling stations across the country, according to INEC.
In a country where the median age is 18, many Nigerian voters are young and will be running for office for the first time.
This is the case of Fola Adeosun, who will exercise his right to vote for the first time with great enthusiasm.
“This is my moment. Nigeria deserves the best and I will do everything to be among those who bring change,” the youngster said.
Polling stations will be open until 2 p.m. local time (1 p.m. GMT) in elections billed as the most contested since the restoration of democracy in 1999.
Eighteen candidates are running in this presidential race, but the polls indicate that only three have a real chance of winning: the Muslim Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of the government; Atiku Abubakar, from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); and the Christian Peter Obi, from the Labor Party.
The first early bird of all this Saturday was the Labor candidate, who headed to his polling station in Agulu, the most populous town in Anambra State (of which Obi was governor), early on morning and was sure of his electoral victory in front of the local and international media.
To provide election security, the Nigerian Police reported the deployment of over 301,900 security officers across the country.
In addition, the country announced the closure of all its land borders from last midnight until this Sunday.
On the other hand, all vehicle movements were prohibited from 00:00 local time (2300 GMT) to 06:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday.
As a result, the roads of Nigeria’s biggest cities, such as Lagos, known for its huge traffic jams, woke up empty of vehicles.
In Mushin, a district of Lagos, young people took advantage of the deserted roads to play football.
The winner of the presidential election will inherit a nation plagued by growing insecurity in parts of the country, with constant attacks by criminal gangs who kidnap civilians for lucrative ransom, jihadist groups and pro-independence rebels.
It will also have to deal with the devaluation of the local currency (naira), galloping inflation and high unemployment, as Nigeria emerges as Africa’s largest oil producer and the continent’s largest economy.