Reporting News and opinions
As Nigeria prepares to mark another Independence Day on 1 October, I have been reading a speech delivered on 31 December 1983 by a young Brigadier, Sani Abacha, announcing the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari.
There is a striking political phenomenon in Nigerian politics: the convert can sometimes become more zealous than those who were never required to convert.
The BBC reviewed results from more than 6,000 polling stations in Rivers State. Its investigation found that the polling-unit figures it could obtain suggested that Obi had won the state by a substantial margin. The BBC also reported that Tinubu’s official declared total was more than 106,000 votes higher than its polling-station tally, while Obi’s official figure was more than 50,000 lower.
Armed with high-resolution scanners, magnifying glasses, and a fresh grievance, politicians comb through the educational credentials of their opponents. They obsess over font kerning, faint seals, and misaligned margins, convinced that somewhere between a crooked signature and an unreadable stamp lies the ultimate prize: getting the Supreme Court to invalidate millions of votes before lunch.
Nyesom Wike is no longer merely a powerful Nigerian politician with an unusually large appetite for political combat. He has become a test of whether Nigeria’s democratic institutions are strong enough to restrain an individual who appears increasingly convinced that power itself is the ultimate justification.
