President Joe Biden, in his March 5 visit to Selma, Alabama, reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to supporting democracy and protecting voting rights. This commitment echoed loudly in Africa’s largest democracy, which experienced a contentious presidential election on Feb. 25. In response to an avalanche of criticism, the government postponed for one week the voting for state governors and assemblies.
Despite its imperfections, Nigeria’s electoral democracy has lasted longer than its predecessors. Almost 90 million Nigerians collected voting cards for the contests. Fewer than a third, however, showed up at the polls. A highly touted system of electronic transmission of votes failed, leading to the manual collation of ballots. Accusations swirled that the failure was contrived so the results could be manipulated.
Disregarding the protests, on Feb. 28, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of the most populous state, Lagos, to be the elected president. Just a day later, the U.S. State Department congratulated Tinubu and the Nigerian people. Its statement seemed to downplay the protests, referring to them as “frustrations over the shortcomings of technical elements” in the electoral process.
