Election Results....for now
Today it was announced that Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua and his running mate, Goodluck Jonathan, were elected as the new Nigerian President and Vice President with around 93% of the vote. If you have read any of the newspapers around the world, you are undoubtedly astonished to hear the news. Ballot boxes were stolen, ballot boxes were stuffed with forged ballots, some states didn't even hold elections (because the ballots never arrived - see the pattern?), and elections observers observed that in many other places nobody showed up to vote. Add violence to the mix and you have to wonder how many people, if any, actually voted. But this is Nigeria and the incumbent president proudly hailed this election as a victory for democracy.
It feels as though the country is holding its collective breath and that when it is exhaled it will be the most horrendous case of halitosis ever. There are militant groups that are unhappy with, well, everything. There are groups who are unhappy about being Nigerian and wish to secede. There is the millions-of-people group who feel oppressed and angry and are looking for someone -anyone- to lead them. Then there are the groups of politicians who are unhappy that they lost. If any of these decide to take matters into their own hands, it will be a disaster. If two or more of these unhappy groups band together, it will be worse.
My "political acumen" fails me at this point. No matter what my world experience may be, the desire for power at any cost is beyond my understanding.
Here is the new President, A. U. Yar'Adua:
And here is the new VP, Goodluck Jonathan:
It feels as though the country is holding its collective breath and that when it is exhaled it will be the most horrendous case of halitosis ever. There are militant groups that are unhappy with, well, everything. There are groups who are unhappy about being Nigerian and wish to secede. There is the millions-of-people group who feel oppressed and angry and are looking for someone -anyone- to lead them. Then there are the groups of politicians who are unhappy that they lost. If any of these decide to take matters into their own hands, it will be a disaster. If two or more of these unhappy groups band together, it will be worse.
My "political acumen" fails me at this point. No matter what my world experience may be, the desire for power at any cost is beyond my understanding.
Here is the new President, A. U. Yar'Adua:
And here is the new VP, Goodluck Jonathan:
Comments
For some reason, I can think of is the Wild West and "Got Deathwish?"
Please come home?