Nigerians angry over last-minute election postponement
Nigerians are angry over the last-minute postponement of elections that were due to take place today, Saturday. Instead, the elections will take place next week on 23 February. The delay was announced officially in the early hours while most were still asleep, leaving many people disappointed to wake up to such news.
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The polls were due to open at 8am Saturday, February 16th. In the poorer neighbourhood of Agege in Lagos, near the airport, a group of men gather around the table where the morning’s papers are displayed.
None of the papers reported the postponement as they went to print before the announcement was made by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, around 3 a.m.
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“It’s most embarrassing because all of us planned for this election, you can see everywhere we were at it, because we are ready for the elections. That means all of the plans for today are over!” says Mr Festus, a tall man, who speaks with emotion, but makes an effort to not raise his voice.
He only found out about the postponement as he looked at his phone for news when he woke up Saturday morning before heading down to the polling station.
All of the men around him gather and nod their heads in unison.
Just behind, a petrol station is closed for the day. Nearly every business was closed for Saturday in anticipation of the elections.
This means that those who can’t go to work will lose money. It also means that those who have to return to work on account of the elections being postponed risk losing their job if they can’t get to work on time, as most means of transportation (bus, mini-bus, taxis) are unavailable.
“Most of us here are not happy because it has effected everything concerning our lives! So that’s why we’re here, everybody is not happy” adds Mr. Festus.
He stresses that there is nothing they can do.
However, he will still go and vote next week.
Another man, wearing a head-to-toe printed top and bottom voices his disappointment in the situation.
“I was surprised, it is a slap to us in Nigeria that they cancelled the election. Nigeria leadership capability is already embarrassing to us. Because they are not ready to do it, why do they conduct the election, because we have already lost our job today? So I was surprised” explains Adichene Adiku.
But when asked if he will still go to the polls next week, Adichene shrugs his soldiers and says yes, he is ready to vote.
Voting in Ikeja
About a 15 minutes drive from Agege we get to Ikeja, considered more as a working middle class neighbourhood.
The street, which would normally be packed with traffic, is eerily quiet with just a few tuk-tuks passing by.
Off the road is a gated area that is closed in one part, but a gaping hole lets me walk in.
I’m greeted by two women who are getting ready for the day, in front of a small store.
Mrs Enulofa runs this store.
She removes her apron over her green and yellow outfit and smiles while stating matter-of-factly that she was going to vote today.
She came here on Friday from Lagos Island and slept in her store with her family in anticipation of voting where she is registered.
“Now we heard that the election has been cancelled around 6 o’clock this morning. So we are preparing to go back.”
But she’s not sure how she’ll get back.
Regardless, she says she will be back next week to vote, “I will still come ‘round, I’m a good Lagotian” she chuckles.
Just at the intersection and not far from one of the police stations, a young man steps out of a yellow tuk-tuk.
“We are very disappointed in what is going on in this country. We are automatically disappointed because this country is a country whereby masses are suffering. And nobody is working. Even when they want to cancel the vote they could have told us. Now today's business has already automatically failed!," he shouts as his voice gets angrier about the situation.
He only found out about the postponement this morning, as was the case with many others.
“I saw it in the media. I thought it was a lie, you understand! Yesterday night, I was in the station thinking that the election would be ok this morning. Unfortunately I wake up here I saw that everything is downcast," he said.
He laments the fact that logistically, many travelled to Lagos from other parts of the country, such as Kogi state, or Maiduguri, only to find out, at the very last minute it has been postponed.
“Instead of them to let us know that [the] election is cancelled this morning, we wake up and find out…..it’s a f****g country!”
When asked if he would vote next Saturday, “I will hold my voter's card and I will likely destroy it!” he responds.
Just near him on the road, are three older men, Yes Belloo, Joseph Akinjiyan and Mufutau Belloo.
Sitting on abandoned pieces of cement blocks, they listen to the radio that’s beside Mufutau.
Decked out in a rainbow of colours, Yes says he was ready to vote, but heard this morning on the radio about the postponement. He says now his brothers, who came out here on foot to vote, will have to come back again. But he adds others in his family, such as his wife or his mother feel defeated and likely won’t try to vote again.
His brother, Mufutau says he heard the news on Rainbow FM this morning at 6 am.
“Disappointment! Everybody was ready," he says.
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