InsiderBLM Africa
One week out from the election, the front-runners in Nigeria’s presidential race began a major push to win over voters on Saturday.
In Nigeria, where President Muhammadu Buhari is stepping down after serving the maximum two terms permitted by the constitution, more than 90 million people are registered to vote.
Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the incumbent party’s candidate, paraded through Maiduguri in northeast Borno state while waving from the top of an open-air double-decker bus.
As they traveled to the Elkanemi Sports Centre, where more people with flags and banners had gathered to hear the candidate speak, hundreds of supporters ran alongside the convoy.
Tinubu, a seasoned politician and former governor of Lagos, is anticipated to hold his last rally in his hometown on Tuesday.
The main opposition candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, arrived in Yola’s Mahmud Ribadu Square on a double-decker bus in the neighboring state of Adamawa.
Abubakar was greeted by a sizable crowd that was dancing and singing, many of whom were dressed in traditional attire, and even had a camel among them.
His nickname is “Atiku,” and he served as vice president from 1999 to 2007. This is his sixth run for the presidency.
Victor Dogo, a supporter, said, “He’s long waited for this chance; we’ve been praying for a unifier, a man that brings about unity in the country.”
“Taking back our country”
On Saturday, Labour Party (LP) outsider candidate Peter Obi was not visible campaigning, but he used social media to rally his supporters, or “the Obidients,” in a number of cities across the nation.
Several hundred Obi supporters in colorful attire marched from the city’s center to the city gate in Abuja, Nigeria, while chanting and blowing vuvuzula horns.
Businesswoman Maureen Kabrik, a supporter of Obi, stated, “We are taking our country back.” He is the only person who stands out and has been engaging with the public.
Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), another contender for the presidency, was supported by large crowds in Mutum Biyu, a town in northern Taraba state.
The country is undergoing widespread insecurity and tensions related to a currency crisis as elections are being held.
In the early hours of Saturday, gunmen attacked a police station in the Ogidi neighborhood of Anambra state’s southeast.
According to a statement from police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu, “the hoodlums started shooting sporadically on approaching the area command and threw improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs, gaining entrance (into the station).
Tochukwu continued, “Three police officers paid the ultimate price.”
Security forces also have to contend with a 14-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast and kidnapping gangs in the north, in addition to the unrest in the southeast.
Since the central bank of Nigeria banned old notes in December and replaced them with newly designed ones, the country’s citizens have also been experiencing a cash shortage.
But the central bank printed a lot fewer notes than were previously in circulation in an effort to encourage “cashless” payments and lower the amount of money outside the banking system.
Just days before elections, the lack of money has sparked protests in major cities this week, with customers attacking banks and blocking roads.
Allegations that Tinubu’s election campaign could fail because of a lack of cash have also caused tensions to rise in the ruling APC party.
