Nigeria’s opposition party is calling for re-election. Nigeria, which is one of Africa’s most populous countries,
has finally held elections after the eight years in which Muhammad Buhari held office. Under Buhari’s regime, the country suffered in many areas, one such being the economy. According to CNN, the electoral body currently stated the elections are being “heavily doc- tored and manipulated” after a joint press conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital. Political parties within the region announced they will not be a part of the collation process, and have “lost confidence in the electoral body Chairman Mahmood Yakubu.” These two parties in particular are the representatives from the PDP, and the African Democratic Congress. Additionally, these two parties were said to have called for the removal of the current chair-person of the Independent national Electoral Commission. Nigerians are wanting to alert the world that the results being declared are “heavily doctored and manipulated.”

The entirety of the election was not honest, and secretive. While citizens regardless were encouraged to vote, and continue to stay engaged in political matters, the head of Nigeria’s election monitoring body claimed there was a serious cause for concern when it came to the election in general.

According to NPR, many of the polling centers opened late, and in some areas zero voting took place.

Currently, the Ruling All Progressives Congress’s candidate is leading the election results. His opponent, Atiku Abubakar is currently in second place. The third place candidate, Peter Obi however, is making some waves with his major victory in Tinubu, located in Lagos state. Peter Obi beat Bola Tinubu, (who is currently first place in this election) when it came to Tinubu. This was extremely shocking given Lagos state is Bola Tinubu’s home
state. In fact, before running in this election, Tinubu was the previous governor of Lagos state.

Not only did Obi’s victory in Tinubu make headlines, but his current party, the Obi Labour Party, has now started to become prevalent. Through the rise of Obi’s labor party, the already established two party political system is slowly becoming threatened. According to NPR, 75% of the results were announced by INEC, and Obi currently holds 23% of the vote. Even though he is third place, he has won victories in key cities.

However, not only are the elec- tions themselves said to be extremely problematic but there has been an outburst of violence at the election polls as well. CNN reports indicate many individuals who came to vote were faced with “intimidation and attempts to suppress votes.” It got to the point where the violence was so bad, there had to
be military intervention. Thugs had come to the scene and started to beat individuals with chairs, many women, including pregnant women were targeted amongst the violence, phones were smashed by thugs, etc.. Additionally, gunmen were said to have been spotted at the polling station, in which they also took away the ballot box in Lagos. These gunmen were masked, and therefore were not able to be identified according to NPR.