Nigeria postpones elections until 23 February over "challenges"

The Nigerian Electoral Commission postponed the presidential election to 23 February, making the announcement just five minutes before the polls opened on Saturday. He cited unspecified "challenges" in the information that voting materials had not been distributed in all parts of the country.

The inhabitants of the most populous nation of Africa and the largest democracy will soon be revolted. Many had moved for the chance to vote.

"It was a difficult decision to make, but necessary for the good conduct of the elections and the consolidation of our democracy," committee chairman Mahmood Yakubu told reporters in Abuja. He added that more details would be released at an afternoon briefing.

A review of the logistics, coupled with the determination to hold a credible vote, led the commission to conclude that it was "impossible to continue the elections as planned," he said.

Nigeria has also postponed the previous presidential election of 2015 due to deadly insecurity in the north-east of the country, still threatened by Islamist extremists.

While the word was filtered out after midnight of a possible delay in elections, at least in some areas, Situation Room, a civil society group monitoring the vote, said in a statement that "any suggestion that elections be held are staggered or totally unacceptable, and would be a recipe for a disastrous election. "

It was expected that more than 84 million voters in this country, out of a total of 190 million, will go to the polls in what is perceived as a tight and animated race between President Muhammadu Buhari, aged 76, and the great rival Atiku Abubakar, former billionaire vice president.

Both pledged to work for peaceful elections even as their supporters, including senior officials, sounded the alarm with keen warnings of foreign interference and allegations of cheating.

"It's really disappointing, but Nigeria is taking it over," Vice President Yemi Osinbajo's spokesman said on Twitter, adding that Buhari was already in his hometown where he was to vote.

When Buhari came to power in 2015, he marked history with the first defeat of the incumbent president in elections considered one of the most transparent and tranquil ever lived in Nigeria, which experienced violence murderous after the vote.

At present, Buhari could become the second holder to be replaced. His tenure was marked by a collapse in world oil prices that plunged Nigeria's heavily oil-dependent economy into a rare recession from which it emerged only in 2017. Unemployment soared. India has become the nation with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty. More than 13 million children would not go to school.

Insecurity on many fronts has made little progress, disturbing neighbors in the West African region and beyond. While the army has repulsed Boko Haram extremists from many communities in the north-east of the country, accusations that the group was "crushed" have weakened in the face of continuing violence. A new branch preaching allegiance to the Islamic State group has burst in recent months, attacking military bases – and this week a convoy of governors – again sending tens of thousands of people.

In addition to this, banditry in the northwest, oil activists in the south and deadly fighting in the central region between farmers and ranchers on increasingly valuable land keep security forces and the population at bay. On Friday, authorities reported at least 66 people dead this week in the same village, according to one resident attributed to clashes between farmers and pastoralists.

"We love our country and we need our country to be free from all the violence … and all the nonsense that takes place during the electoral period," said the faithful Amin Muhammad Khalif at the time of the election. after his prayer Friday in Kano, the second from Nigeria. The largest city in the country, divided roughly equally between Muslims and Christians.

"Let's make Nigeria work again"

Even as part of the fight against corruption, in which Mr Buhari could report some progress, many Nigerians have worried that the people targeted are mainly opposition figures.

Meanwhile, many Nigerians are worried about Buhari himself after spending more than 150 days out of the country for unspecified medical treatment. Devoted to both the physical and charisma, Buhari spoke for a few minutes during his last campaign rally on Thursday and had trouble hearing or grasping a number of questions in a recent televised town hall.

Borrowing a page from President Donald Trump's note book, the main challenger Abubakar has been campaigning on the theme "Let's make Nigeria work again", while promising to apply its business acumen to the privatization of Nigeria 's largest oil company and to lift 50 million people out of poverty by 2025.

Despite such proclamations, Abubakar has never succeeded in shaking off years of allegations of corruption. And, as Buhari whispered in his last pre-election speech to the nation on Thursday, "we just can not proclaim jobs."

In the end, the vote now postponed could result in the sad state of Africa's largest economy, its empty pockets and its stomach.

In Abuja, Bako Sharibu, 56, was plunged into a dumpster while he was looking for pieces of plastic to recycle. His shy smile vanished when he remembered that he had already had a good job as a janitor. He is now struggling to reach his goal of 300 nairas (83 cents) a day.

"Everyone is suffering too much, he is hungry everywhere," he said, adding that while he could save a few thousand nairas, he would send money to his three children in the north of the country. State of Kaduna.

Then he shook his pocket. It was near the sunset. He had only 50 naira in hand.

He will vote for Abubakar, he said. Nigeria needs change.