CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA/JOHANNESBURG ¨C When Nigerians go to the polls on Saturday, there¡¯ll be much more at stake than the presidency and seats in the parliament of Africa¡¯s most populous nation.
Democracy is on the back foot in Africa, and a credible and widely accepted outcome will go some way toward offsetting negative perceptions of the world¡¯s poorest continent. While most Nigerian elections since military rule ended in 1999 concluded acrimoniously, the last contest four years ago saw the first-ever transfer of power via the ballot box and was hailed as a watershed moment for the nation¡¯s almost 200 million people.
¡°The significance of the Nigerian elections for Africa is tremendous,¡± said Nic Cheeseman, a professor of democracy and international development at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. ¡°A flawed election and the political instability that this could generate would not only undermine confidence in the feasibility of democracy in one of Africa¡¯s most important states, but also slow economic growth in West Africa and the wider region.¡±
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