By Amaechi Nwosu
The stage appears set for Nigeria to get into the second test of democracy, expected to consolidate transition to civil rule which was achieved in 1999 after a hard struggle from military government which had held sway in the country for 15 years uninterrupted.
The elections ushering in the country’s 5th republic is expected to kick off on Saturday, with the contest for the governorship position in Nigeria’s 36 states.
Over 30 political parties would be slugging it out in the elections in which many world leaders and foreign experts say, will test the strength of democracy in the country after eight years of civil rule.
The Nigerian Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recently released a list candidates expected to contest Saturday’s election, with majority of the popular candidates and in the opposition parties excluded from the elections.
Most of the candidates excluded in the INEC list have vowed contest the election despite their de-enlistment, with some putting up slogans as “no election if they are excluded.”
The sitting Vice President of the country, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who has indicated interest to go for top office and replace his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, has been having running battle with the government over this decision and efforts have been made to stop.
The name of the vice president had been removed from the INEC list of qualified candidates and his party the Action Congress has reacted violently to this, saying, “no Atiku, no elections.”
They have accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party(PDP) of working to make it easy for its presidential candidate, Alhaji Umar Yar’adua, whom many believe could lose the election on health grounds.
Yar’ adua who is presently the Governor of Katsina State, in the Northern part of the country, was rumoured to have died in far away Germany where he had gone for treatments, after he collapsed while on a campaign tour.
He was earlier said to be suffering from a chronic kidney disease which many say is a minus for any person seeking to occupy the country’s presidency.
The INEC had told the world that they are excluding Atiku base on constitutional demands which says that anybody indicted by an administrative panel would not be allow to contest the elections.
But many had cried foul, especially in the wake of many obstacles placed on the way of the Vice President by the ruling PDP and the Presidency to prevent him from contesting the elections.
The presidency had said that it was acting genuinely and to ensure that no corrupt person occupies the seat of power, exclaiming that Vice President Atiku soiled his hands in the Petroleum Trust Development Fund(PTDF).
Reacting viciously, Atiku had accused the president of directly pinching from the PTD Fund, and investigations on this allegation is yet to be concluded by the country’s upper legislative house.
A Nigerian Senate committee had in later deliberation, indicted the president and his deputy for corruption over an oil fund.
The committee recommends both President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar be prosecuted.
The committee resigned after pressure to block the report. The Senate will now consider the report but not until after general elections next month.
Indeed, as Nigerians go to elections this weekend, all this will come into play in making the decision of who wins the elections.
In the country’s ancient city of Ibadan in Oyo State, the incumbent Governor Rasheed Ladoja has vowed to prevent his deputy, Christopher Alao-Akala from getting the ticket for the government house.
This state is one of hot spot in the election which the president himself has declared, ‘a do-or-die” affairs.