Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Video - Nigerians siphoning off oil for survival
In Nigeria, unemployment and poverty are forcing many young people to turn to crime and they are tapping into the country's rich resources of oil. Africa's largest producer of crude oil is losing millions of dollars because of theft, but some locals say the illicit way is their only means of survival.
Buhari re-elected as president of Nigeria
Nigeria's electoral commission has declared incumbent Muhammadu Buhari the winner of the country's presidential elections.
The announcement in the early hours of Wednesday means the 76-year-old has won a second four-year term at the helm of Africa's largest economy and most populous country.
Hours after Buhari was declared winner, opposition leader Atiku Abubakar rejected the results and vowed a legal challenge.
Buhari, of the ruling All Progressives Congress party, secured 56 percent, or 15.2m votes, in the February 23 polls, Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said.
His main opponent, former vice president Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), received 41 percent or 11.3m votes.
"Muhammadu Buhari ... is hereby declared winner," Yakubu said.
Hours after the announcement, Abubakar issued a statement rejecting the results.
"It is clear that there were manifest and premeditated malpractices in many states which negate the results announced..." he said.
"I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019, sham election and will be challenging it in court."
The PDP has alleged electoral malpractice, including vote-rigging, in the polls, which were delayed by a week at the 11th hour.
Voting was marked by hours-long delays and deadly violence that observers said kept some people away from the polls.
Buhari's party has said the opposition was trying to discredit the returns from Saturday's election.
The accusations have ratcheted up tensions in a country whose six decades of independence have been marked by long periods of military rule, coups and secessionist wars.
'Marred by violence'
Observers from the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union and the United Nations appealed to all parties to await the official results, expected later this week, before filing complaints.
The candidate with the most votes nationwide is declared the winner as long as they have at least one-quarter of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and the capital, Abuja. Otherwise, there is a second-round runoff.
Buhari, 76, secured enough votes to meet both requirements.
He took office in 2015 and sought a second term with pledges to fight corruption and overhaul Nigeria's ailing road and rail network.
Atiku, 72, had said he would aim to double the size of the economy to $900bn by 2025, privatise the state oil company, and expand the role of the private sector.
Voting took place after a week-long delay which the election commission said was due to its inability to get ballots and results sheets to all parts of the country.
The vote - Africa's largest democratic exercise - was also marred by violence with at least 47 people killed since Saturday, according to the Situation Room, a monitoring organisation linking various civil society groups.
Some deaths resulted from clashes between groups allied to the leading parties and the police over the theft of ballot boxes and allegations of vote fraud.
Police have not yet provided official casualty figures.
More than 260 people have been killed since the start of the election campaign in October.
The toll so far is lower than in earlier elections, but the worst violence occurred previously only after results were announced.
Al Jazeera
The announcement in the early hours of Wednesday means the 76-year-old has won a second four-year term at the helm of Africa's largest economy and most populous country.
Hours after Buhari was declared winner, opposition leader Atiku Abubakar rejected the results and vowed a legal challenge.
Buhari, of the ruling All Progressives Congress party, secured 56 percent, or 15.2m votes, in the February 23 polls, Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said.
His main opponent, former vice president Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), received 41 percent or 11.3m votes.
"Muhammadu Buhari ... is hereby declared winner," Yakubu said.
Hours after the announcement, Abubakar issued a statement rejecting the results.
"It is clear that there were manifest and premeditated malpractices in many states which negate the results announced..." he said.
"I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019, sham election and will be challenging it in court."
The PDP has alleged electoral malpractice, including vote-rigging, in the polls, which were delayed by a week at the 11th hour.
Voting was marked by hours-long delays and deadly violence that observers said kept some people away from the polls.
Buhari's party has said the opposition was trying to discredit the returns from Saturday's election.
The accusations have ratcheted up tensions in a country whose six decades of independence have been marked by long periods of military rule, coups and secessionist wars.
'Marred by violence'
Observers from the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union and the United Nations appealed to all parties to await the official results, expected later this week, before filing complaints.
The candidate with the most votes nationwide is declared the winner as long as they have at least one-quarter of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and the capital, Abuja. Otherwise, there is a second-round runoff.
Buhari, 76, secured enough votes to meet both requirements.
He took office in 2015 and sought a second term with pledges to fight corruption and overhaul Nigeria's ailing road and rail network.
Atiku, 72, had said he would aim to double the size of the economy to $900bn by 2025, privatise the state oil company, and expand the role of the private sector.
Voting took place after a week-long delay which the election commission said was due to its inability to get ballots and results sheets to all parts of the country.
The vote - Africa's largest democratic exercise - was also marred by violence with at least 47 people killed since Saturday, according to the Situation Room, a monitoring organisation linking various civil society groups.
Some deaths resulted from clashes between groups allied to the leading parties and the police over the theft of ballot boxes and allegations of vote fraud.
Police have not yet provided official casualty figures.
More than 260 people have been killed since the start of the election campaign in October.
The toll so far is lower than in earlier elections, but the worst violence occurred previously only after results were announced.
Al Jazeera
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Video - Observers advocate transparency in Nigeria's electoral process
Election observers in Nigeria say there is a great need for more transparency in the process in the country as results continue to be tallied from Saturday's vote. The delayed opening of polling centres and some problems with electronic voting machines made it difficult for many people to cast their ballots. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed incidents of ballot box destruction, voter intimidation and abduction of election officials
Video - Results trickle in Nigeria, incumbent Buhari with slight lead over Atiku
President Muhamadu Buhari has taken an early lead with 1.3 million votes. His closest challenger, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has one-point-one million votes. The result could change as more results are expected to be tallied over night. Voting was extended to Sunday in several states to allow voters who were unable to vote on the election day late delivery of polling materials.
President Buhari leads vote in Nigerian elections as apposition cries foul
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari held the edge in early election results that the main opposition party claimed were being manipulated following a vote marred by delays and at least 39 deaths.
After results from 11 of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Buhari led his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, by a 51 percent to 46 percent margin, according to data announced on Monday by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the capital, Abuja. The final vote tally is expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
With his strong support in the northwest, the region with the greatest number of registered voters, Buhari’s prospects of winning re-election are bright, said Max Siollun, a Nigerian historian based in New York.
“The results so far will give Buhari and his supporters great confidence -- it will take a tectonic shift in result patterns for Atiku to win,” he said in an emailed response to questions. “If the north-western results as expected show heavy voting there for Buhari, then a Buhari victory will be a near certainty.”
The presidential and parliamentary election in Africa’s top oil producer was the continent’s biggest-ever democratic exercise. Almost 73 million people were eligible to vote Saturday in what analysts thought would be a tight race mainly between Buhari, an ex-general who campaigned on an anti-graft platform, and Abubakar, a 72-year-old businessman and former vice president.
The chairman of Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party, Uche Secondus, accused the government of using “inducements, manipulation and incarcerations” and enlisting the police and national army “to silence the voices of our long suffering people.” In a statement, he threatened to challenge some results.
Buhari’s All Progressives Congress rejected the claims in a statement, accusing the PDP of trying to “discredit and destabilize” the electoral process.
The election pitted two men of contrasting economic views, with Buhari, who favors a strong government role, against Abubakar, a pro-market multimillionaire who has said he would float the national currency and sell stakes in the state oil company.
Wall Street banks such as Citigroup Inc. had said Nigerian equities and bonds will probably rally if Abubakar wins. The stock market closed up 0.6 percent in Lagos on Monday to extend its gains this year to 4 percent.
Election Day Fatalities
At least 39 people were killed in election-related violence, Clement Nwankwo, the chairman of Situation Room, a monitoring group, told reporters Monday in Abuja. The inspector general of police, who didn’t give a death toll, said 128 people were arrested for offenses such as homicide and snatching of ballot boxes. INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said an election worker was killed by a stray bullet in Rivers state.
“Serious operational shortcomings placed undue burden on voters,” the European Union observer mission said, while the African Union called the vote “largely peaceful and orderly.”
To win, a candidate must get the majority of votes and at least 25 percent in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and Federal Capital Territory. Otherwise, there’ll be a second round.
While Buhari was likely to win in the north, Abubakar was expected to dominate in the south-east and south-south, two of Nigeria’s six so-called geopolitical zones, where Buhari has long been unpopular. The south-west, which includes the commercial capital of Lagos, and the north-central zones were potential swing areas.
Abubakar’s PDP suffered an early blow when one of its highest-profile politicians, Senate President Bukola Saraki, lost his seat in the southwestern state of Kwara to the candidate from Buhari’s APC, according to INEC results.
“Whilst the environment was tense and divisive, overall, fundamental freedoms of association, expression, assembly and movement were generally respected,” the chairman of the Commonwealth Observer Group, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, told reporters in Abuja.
Both Buhari and Abubakar are northern Muslims in a country split roughly evenly between a Christian south and Islamic north.
Buhari ruled the country briefly as a dictator in the 1980s and morphed into a civilian politician who won on his fourth try for the presidency in 2015. Abubakar, who was vice president between 1999 and 2007, has business interests ranging from oil and gas services to food manufacturing and a private university.
Buhari and his APC have faced sharp criticism for their handling of the economy. The president imposed capital controls as the naira currency came under pressure amid plunging revenue from oil, the country’s main export, and foreign investors fled. After a contraction in 2016, the economy expanded 1.9 percent last year, the fastest since Buhari’s election.
Yet Nigeria now has more extremely poor people, 87 million, than any other nation, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. The United Nations expects its population to double to 410 million by 2050, overtaking everywhere bar India and China.
Buhari’s supporters paint him as an honest politician who provides a sharp counterpart to the PDP that governed Nigeria for 16 years from the end of military rule in 1999.
Buhari’s suspension of Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, accused of falsely declaring his assets, just weeks before the presidential election, was criticized by the legal community, the U.S. and the European Union, because the vote results may be contested in the Supreme Court.
Abubakar portrays himself as someone who knows how to get things done and his pro-market policies have won some favor among investors. While he’s faced allegations of corruption, he denies any wrongdoing and has never been indicted at home or abroad.
By Solape Renner, Anthony Osae-Brown, and Paul Wallace
Bloomberg
After results from 11 of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Buhari led his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, by a 51 percent to 46 percent margin, according to data announced on Monday by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the capital, Abuja. The final vote tally is expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
With his strong support in the northwest, the region with the greatest number of registered voters, Buhari’s prospects of winning re-election are bright, said Max Siollun, a Nigerian historian based in New York.
“The results so far will give Buhari and his supporters great confidence -- it will take a tectonic shift in result patterns for Atiku to win,” he said in an emailed response to questions. “If the north-western results as expected show heavy voting there for Buhari, then a Buhari victory will be a near certainty.”
The presidential and parliamentary election in Africa’s top oil producer was the continent’s biggest-ever democratic exercise. Almost 73 million people were eligible to vote Saturday in what analysts thought would be a tight race mainly between Buhari, an ex-general who campaigned on an anti-graft platform, and Abubakar, a 72-year-old businessman and former vice president.
The chairman of Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party, Uche Secondus, accused the government of using “inducements, manipulation and incarcerations” and enlisting the police and national army “to silence the voices of our long suffering people.” In a statement, he threatened to challenge some results.
Buhari’s All Progressives Congress rejected the claims in a statement, accusing the PDP of trying to “discredit and destabilize” the electoral process.
The election pitted two men of contrasting economic views, with Buhari, who favors a strong government role, against Abubakar, a pro-market multimillionaire who has said he would float the national currency and sell stakes in the state oil company.
Wall Street banks such as Citigroup Inc. had said Nigerian equities and bonds will probably rally if Abubakar wins. The stock market closed up 0.6 percent in Lagos on Monday to extend its gains this year to 4 percent.
Election Day Fatalities
At least 39 people were killed in election-related violence, Clement Nwankwo, the chairman of Situation Room, a monitoring group, told reporters Monday in Abuja. The inspector general of police, who didn’t give a death toll, said 128 people were arrested for offenses such as homicide and snatching of ballot boxes. INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said an election worker was killed by a stray bullet in Rivers state.
“Serious operational shortcomings placed undue burden on voters,” the European Union observer mission said, while the African Union called the vote “largely peaceful and orderly.”
To win, a candidate must get the majority of votes and at least 25 percent in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and Federal Capital Territory. Otherwise, there’ll be a second round.
While Buhari was likely to win in the north, Abubakar was expected to dominate in the south-east and south-south, two of Nigeria’s six so-called geopolitical zones, where Buhari has long been unpopular. The south-west, which includes the commercial capital of Lagos, and the north-central zones were potential swing areas.
Abubakar’s PDP suffered an early blow when one of its highest-profile politicians, Senate President Bukola Saraki, lost his seat in the southwestern state of Kwara to the candidate from Buhari’s APC, according to INEC results.
“Whilst the environment was tense and divisive, overall, fundamental freedoms of association, expression, assembly and movement were generally respected,” the chairman of the Commonwealth Observer Group, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, told reporters in Abuja.
Both Buhari and Abubakar are northern Muslims in a country split roughly evenly between a Christian south and Islamic north.
Buhari ruled the country briefly as a dictator in the 1980s and morphed into a civilian politician who won on his fourth try for the presidency in 2015. Abubakar, who was vice president between 1999 and 2007, has business interests ranging from oil and gas services to food manufacturing and a private university.
Buhari and his APC have faced sharp criticism for their handling of the economy. The president imposed capital controls as the naira currency came under pressure amid plunging revenue from oil, the country’s main export, and foreign investors fled. After a contraction in 2016, the economy expanded 1.9 percent last year, the fastest since Buhari’s election.
Yet Nigeria now has more extremely poor people, 87 million, than any other nation, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. The United Nations expects its population to double to 410 million by 2050, overtaking everywhere bar India and China.
Buhari’s supporters paint him as an honest politician who provides a sharp counterpart to the PDP that governed Nigeria for 16 years from the end of military rule in 1999.
Buhari’s suspension of Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, accused of falsely declaring his assets, just weeks before the presidential election, was criticized by the legal community, the U.S. and the European Union, because the vote results may be contested in the Supreme Court.
Abubakar portrays himself as someone who knows how to get things done and his pro-market policies have won some favor among investors. While he’s faced allegations of corruption, he denies any wrongdoing and has never been indicted at home or abroad.
By Solape Renner, Anthony Osae-Brown, and Paul Wallace
Bloomberg
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