President Goodluck Jonathan is vying for a second term in office
Nigerian’s despite the fear of security that has been brought about by the activities of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, are expected to vote in presidential elections on Saturday.
President Goodluck Jonathan is facing a strong challenge from the opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari who many see a serious contender for the top seat.
Goodluck Jonathan, has said, the dates of the rescheduled general elections, will stay even as he commended Nigerians for showing interest in the electoral process.
He also highlighted the achievements of his administration on key areas, noting that the next four years would be a period of consolidation for the country.
The President said this in Abuja during a presidential debate convened by the Nigeria Election Debate Group, NEDG, for all the presidential candidates ahead of the March 28 presidential elections.
Some of the issues that are seen to be driving the elections include, security and the threat from Boko Haram militants.
A spate of victories against Boko Haram has pushed the militants out of much of the territory they controlled in Nigeria, but that is unlikely to do much to boost President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid for re-election by divided voters this week.
At the start of this year the Islamist militants had seized an area the size of Belgium in Africa’s biggest economy and were slaughtering civilians at will, a crisis authorities cited as a reason for delaying the poll by six weeks to March 28. Boko Haram is now on the run and squeezed into ever smaller turf.
Nigeria’s army said on Tuesday it had taken back all but three local government areas, out of around 20 controlled by Boko Haram, a shift owing partly to neighbors Chad, Cameroon and Niger stepping up offensives against the Islamists. It may have come too late to alter perceptions of Jonathan.
“Why did he have to wait until now that the elections are here? Recapturing those towns is like ‘medicine after death’,” computer science student Joe Garba, 38, said, shaking his head as he turned away from his keyboard in his university classroom.
With Nigeria facing its closest election since the end of military rule in 1999, victory on the battlefield won’t automatically mean victory at the ballot box.
