African elections
by planetparker
Returning to the subject of elections in Nigeria, I see that Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka has called for the elections to be re-run. He added that the victor of the “election”, Umaru Yar’Adua is a man of probity, and has added that he should not, therefore, want to steal victory by default from the Nigerian people.
But seriously, why is it that a proper election could not have been organised in Nigeria? The infrastructural problems are, admittedly, daunting but not insurmountable. Furthermore, let us look at some other countries in Africa, such as Mauritania and Mali. The former, though admittedly less populous than Nigeria, is almost entirely made up of desert. Yet Mauritania was able to hold successful presidential elections which were acceptable to both victor and vanquished. The same infrastructural problems face its neighbour Mali which has also been able to pull off a calm and well-run election.
