Nigeria, High On Hope
"Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our will and commitment to rid this nation of terror."
"We shall spare no effort until we defeat terrorism."
"Corruption attacks and seeks to destroy our national institutions and character ... distorts the economy and creates a class of unjustly enriched people."
"Such an illegal yet powerful force soon comes to undermine democracy because it has amassed so much money that they believe they can buy government."
Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian President-elect
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"We knew that we had the numbers last night, but dealing with the type of government we have, we have never really felt we are out of the woods. Clearly we have won it. We are going to the party headquarters now and the presidential candidate will declare victory."
Garba Shehu, spokesman, All Progressives Congress
"It is very significant in our democratic growth, in grounding democracy and consolidating it. We can't have a one-party democracy. We're setting a very great example for the rest of the smaller states in Africa."
Ebere Onwudiwe, political scientist, Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development, Nigeria
As a former major general in the Nigerian military, it must surely have grated furiously on Muhammadu Buhari that the once-respected military that he was part of was incapable of defending his country, the largest, most populous and natural-resources enriched, as a result of endemic malfeasance in the upper ranks of the military, fed by overall government corruption.
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| Main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari holds up his ballot paper prior to voting in Daura, in northern Nigeria's Katsina State, on March 28, 2015 (AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei) |
That Nigeria was becoming unstable, its villages and towns overrun by a wildly run-amok Islamist terrorist group whose predations had slaughtered innocent Nigerians, abducted hundreds of schoolgirls and created over a million desperate refugees, must have appalled him. And all the more that its lesser-endowed neighbours, Chad, Cameroon and Niger were forced to mount their own defences against the scourge emanating from Nigeria.
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| A tired Nigerian woman sits down to rest as others queue, while they face long delays to cast their vote in the afternoon at a polling station in Daura, the home town of opposition candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in northern Nigeria Saturday, March 28, 2015. Nigerians went to the polls Saturday in presidential elections which analysts say will be the most tightly contested in the history of Africa's richest nation and its largest democracy. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) |
Goodluck Jonathan, too long governing the country as an ineffectual and completely compromised president, had the good grace not to demur when it became evident that he and his ruling party had been rejected soundly by a majority count, despite their having indulged in threats and illegal practices at the ballot box. Violence which had visited the election where Mr. Buhari had been defeated by Mr. Jonathan in 2011, was not repeated this time around.
In his previous incarnation as Nigeria's dictator, Muhammadu Buhari governed in a manner reflective of his military past. Three decades earlier he recouped looted state assets to return them to government treasury and conducted a "war against indiscipline" which placed the military in the streets to enforce traffic laws, imposing humiliations on civil servants who were malingerers, and executed drug dealers. Journalists critical of government were jailed and indefinite detention was decreed by law.
Mr. Buhari, fresh from his victory at the polls, has pledged himself to extirpating corruption as well as putting down the Islamist scourge he describes as having "challenged Nigeria to its limits". In the north of the country thousands of Nigerians were celebrating in the streets with shouts of "No Boko Haram! No Boko Haram!", while dancing and waving brooms symbolic of their new president's pledge to sweep out corruption.
Labels: Conflict, Corruption, Democracy, Islamism, Nigeria, Social Welfare
posted by Pieface @ Friday, April 03, 2015
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