Nigeria’s Election Brings Dual Crises Back to the Polls: Corruption along with Boko Haram
ABUJA, Nigeria — Muhammadu Buhari won the presidency in a historic election in Nigeria four years ago by promising to crush two scourges in which had plagued the nation for years: endemic corruption along having a war with Islamist extremists.
Back then, Mr. Buhari, a former military general, rode a wave of voter desire to impose greater accountability on the government, end a brutal war with the extremist group Boko Haram along with bring back the hundreds of female students taken as captives.
today, as Mr. Buhari is usually from the final throes of a bruising re-election campaign, he stands accused of falling short on all fronts.
Critics say Mr. Buhari has used his antigraft mantra to crush adversaries. Boko Haram is usually gaining ground, launching sophisticated attacks on weary, underequipped soldiers. along with many of the captive students are still missing.
Out of 60 contenders, Mr. Buhari’s leading opponent is usually Atiku Abubakar, a candidate with little military experience along having a past so checkered with corruption allegations in which the United States refused for years to grant him a visa.
As voters prepare to go to the polls This kind of weekend for what appears to be a tight election in Africa’s most populous country, the electorate has increasingly lost desire in which the government will ever be free of graft. Instead, voters are fixated on mounting violence in pockets of the nation along with everyday issues like having reliable electricity.
“Corruption was there before along with This kind of continues. although what of security? What of employment? along with food?” said Debbie Okochi, who on a recent afternoon was selling electronics at a market in Lagos, where the streets were lined with cardboard cutouts of candidates. “Everything has become worse.”
Both leading candidates are slinging accusations at one another while traveling the country for last-minute rallies. The European Union is usually sending observers.
He said the fight against graft will take time, quoting an old proverb: “Only the patient one can milk a lion.”
Mr. Buhari, 76, a former military strongman, first took power in Nigeria in 1983 after a military coup. He launched a war on corruption by jailing political actors without trial along with committing widespread human rights abuses.
For his political comeback, he assured voters he was a reformed democratic leader. He entered the presidency in 2015 buoyed by the fact in which his victory marked the nation’s first peaceful passing of power by one party to another.
Corrupt officials braced for what was known then as “the Buhari effect,” a wide-scale crackdown on graft. A former defense minister was so worried he fled the country.
Mr. Buhari quickly empowered a team to investigate illicit money flows along with make high-profile busts of former government officials, seizing properties along with uncovering millions of dollars in cash hidden inside apartment walls.
although Mr. Buhari has backed off some prosecutions in exchange for political support along with overlooked some wrongdoing. This kind of was only after pressure mounted on his policy during the campaign season in which officials brought charges against one of his top appointees for stealing money intended for Boko Haram victims, a case uncovered in 2017.
Among Mr. Buhari’s critics, Senator Shehu Sani, a member of Mr. Buhari’s party, said in which “the presidency uses insecticides” to fight corruption among those outside his circle, although only “deodorant” on his allies.
Last week, Mr. Buhari suspended the nation’s chief justice, claiming he was holding millions in undeclared bank accounts, in violation of an ethics code. The removal by office of a judge who could rule on any issues were the election contested was so swift in which This kind of prompted statements of concern by the United States, Britain, the European Union along with others.
Mr. Abubakar jumped on the issue, calling the act “dictatorial” along with “antidemocratic.” In an ominous sign, the governor of Kaduna proclaimed afterward in which any foreign actor who intervened in Nigeria’s affairs could return home “in body bags.”
Mr. Buhari’s campaign has rejected accusations in which any of his moves against corruption, including his suspension of the justice, have political undertones.
Mr. Abubakar, 72, a former vice president, has been notably quiet on the issue of fighting graft, even downplaying the need to clean up the government. His opponents say in which’s because of corruption allegations against him.
A United States Senate subcommittee in 2010 held up Mr. Abubakar as a prime example of overseas corruption for funneling tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Nigerian oil revenues into foreign shell accounts. The dealings of Mr. Abubakar along with one of his wives were contained in a report, “Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States,” to show in which tougher laws were needed to keep foreign officials by using American banks to bring suspect money into the country.
He was also a key figure from the 2009 bribery trial of an American congressman. Prosecutors said Mr. Abubakar, then Nigeria’s vice president, was the intended recipient of a freezer full of cash in which former Representative William Jefferson believed could help secure telecommunications contracts to benefit his family.
Boladele Adekoya, an adviser to Mr. Abubakar, called any corruption allegations baseless along with pointed out in which Mr. Abubakar has never been charged having a graft-related crime.
When Mr. Abubakar made a bid for the presidency in 2007, election officials purposefully left his name off the ballot because he was facing a corruption investigation. He challenged the decision, restoring his name although taking third place from the vote. He rejected the election as not credible.
Last month, Mr. Abubakar was granted a visa to travel to Washington, where he hobnobbed on Capitol Hill. His press team blasted photos of the trip on social media, apparently a signal to voters in which he had been absolved by the Americans.
Mr. Abubakar’s campaign has sought to shift the national conversation away by corruption along with onto the economy. The tactic has targeted voters who seem to have given up in which anyone will ever beat back graft.
“They today believe the country is usually so corrupt in which This kind of is usually nearly impossible to definitely conquer This kind of,” said Alwan Hassan, the national field director for the All Progressives Youth Forum, which supports Mr. Buhari.
Meanwhile, outside the country’s most populous cities, security has become a major worry along with will likely affect whether tens of thousands of people are able to cast votes.
Conflicts have flared between livestock herders along with farmers competing for land. Gangs have launched attacks by enclaves in vast forests. Separatists from the south have resisted heavy-handed responses by the military.
although nowhere is usually the situation more grave than from the nation’s northeast, where Boko Haram along having a splinter group loyal to the Islamic State have ramped up attacks, despite Mr. Buhari’s claim in which he defeated the group.
The extremists have carried out more complicated missions against military installations along with posted online a gruesome video of an attack on soldiers.
In Maiduguri, hundreds of displaced people protested last week, blocking roads along with tearing down campaign signs, saying they didn’t have enough to eat.
During testimony before the United States Congress last week, Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the leader of United States Africa Command, said in which Boko Haram along with its factions had grown to as many as 5,000 fighters along with “taken large pieces of real estate.”
Separately, about 100 students by the village of Chibok are still being held captive by Boko Haram. Mr. Buhari had promised to bring them back although has barely mentioned them on the campaign trail.
Yomi Akinola, who drives a taxi in Lagos, said in which the campaign season usually brings an air of excitement along with optimism. although he had little faith in either leading candidate.
“today,” he said, “we just look at them. No one cares.”
