Nigeria Ready to Elect New President on Saturday, 90 million people expected to vote

Nigerian experts report that a record 93.4 million voters are ready to cast their ballots on Saturday in a historic election that will witness a formidable third-party force contesting to replace the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.

The West African nation’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reported registering an additional 10 million voters who are mostly young people, ahead of Saturday’s election that has been dubbed by experts as historic.

Experts add that Feb 25 will witness the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, going up against opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar and the Labor Party’s (LP) Peter Obi, who has been labelled as a formidable third-party force.

Jason Onwe, a young Nigerian voter said he favors the LP’s candidate because he brings a fresh dynamic to politics in the West African nation.

“This man what I call a clean slate. He said if you have any accusations bring it up let me see, and till today nobody has brought any accusations. That’s why I am voting for Peter Obi,” said Onwe.

Idayat Hassan, an analyst with the Center for Democracy and Development said there are a range of factors that will determine who will emerge victorious after Saturday’s election.

“The combination of fuel scarcity for an oil producing nation like Nigeria and the scarcity of naira is now redefining the whole electoral system, even how people will likely vote and what we expect to see on election day in a closely contested election where little things will actually matter,” said Hassan.

Aliyu Abdullahi, a laborer in the West African nation echoed Hassan’s sentiments.

“Just about three days ago, chaos about this cash issue led to violence in my area and two people were killed,” said Abdullahi.

Source: VOA