Abuja, Nigeria – On February 25, Africa’s largest democracy will hold its sixth election since the return to civilian leadership in 1999. The polls in Nigeria will be held a few months shy of the 30th anniversary of the annulled 1993 presidential elections, widely seen as the “freest and fairest” in the country’s history.
In January 1966, six years after Nigeria’s independence, a coup – the country’s first – ended civilian rule. It was not until 1979 that a military government handed over to a democratic administration but that peace was punctured by a New Year’s Eve coup four years later.
