“This election should even come and go, and we will rest”

Extract from a conversation with one of my fieldwork sister

On 25 February 2023, Nigeria will hold its seventh consecutive general election since the return of democracy in 1999. For the first time, the two political parties that have shared power for the past 24 years are threatened by a third party. Insecurity and inflation are the main issues on which the candidates are campaigning, nothing new under the blazing sun.

In the interests of brevity, but with sufficient clues for the foreign reader, here are a few words on each candidate: APC candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, is a Yoruba Muslim who helped Muhammadu Buhari to the presidency. The PDP’s candidate, Abubakar Atiku, a former vice president, is a liberal businessman from the Muslim north. The Labour Party’s candidate, Peter Obi, a former PDP candidate in the 2022 primaries, a Christian Igbo, is said to be the candidate of the urban youth and the Diaspora (who cannot vote).

From my daily encounters I observe that :

Some argue that the moment has come for a Christian presidency of the South given the unstated political pattern (Christian South / Muslim North). Others believe that having a Muslim president in the South is essential “for the survival of the Muslim community in Yorubaland” as Yoruba Muslims feel threatened by the growing influence of evangelical churches. There are those generally young and highly educated, who say they do not care about ethnic and religious background as long as their president is not APC or PDP, is young and brings them hope. In contrast, others prefer an older, experienced candidate to take the reins of a country considered complex and on the verge of collapse.

Campaign posters and rallies have come and gone…

In the street, some queue for four hours for fuel and four hours for cash while the rest of us struggle to buy the newly redesigned naira notes for 20% of their numeral value.

It is to fight against vote buying, they told us as they announced the old naira notes will not be admitted as of February 1^st (a deadline they extended to February 11^th due to the new note scarcity).

This morning, my neighbor tells me in anger :

“They play politics as a game in which they will never lose, while we die here”.

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