Nigerians will finally go to the polls on for the country\u2019s general election on Saturday following a last-minute postponement of the vote a week ago. The main challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, is the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, 72. Whoever wins will have to address power shortages, corruption, security threats, and a sluggish economy.
\nVoting was due to begin at at 08:00 (07:00 GMT) and polls due to close at 14:00 (13:00).
\nAbout two hours before polls were due to open on Saturday, residents of the town of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in the country\u2019s north-east reported hearing several blasts and gunfire. State police said in a statement that there was no threat to public safety. \u201cThe gunfire were not targeted at members of the public but was for security purposes,\u201d the statement said.
\nBorno is the birthplace of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which had said it planned to disrupt the elections. In the north-eastern state of Yobe, suspected Islamist militants attacked the town of Geidam, forcing people to flee, the Reuters news agency reported.
\nThe initial vote was rescheduled in a dramatic press conference in the early hours of Saturday 16 February, just five hours before polls were due to have opened.
\nThe Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has given several reasons for the delay, including attempted sabotage and logistical issues such as bad weather and problems with delivering the ballot papers.
\nInec has said that everything is in place for the poll to take place this time round.
\nThe candidate with the most votes is declared the winner in the first round, as long as that person gains at least 25% of the votes in two-thirds of Nigeria\u2019s 36 states.
\nThere are 73 registered candidates in the presidential election, but campaigning has been dominated by the two political giants and the established party machines behind them.
\nThe president\u2019s All Progressives Congress (APC) has promised to take the country to the \u201cnext level\u201d, arguing that in his first four-year term Mr Buhari has done a lot of \u201cfoundational work\u201d that may not be immediately obvious.
\nAbubakar and his People\u2019s Democratic Party have pledged \u201cto get Nigeria working again\u201d, saying that the president has wasted the last four years.
\nBoth men are from the mainly Muslim north of the country. While they are in their 70s, more than half of Nigeria\u2019s 84 million registered voters are under 35.
\nNigeria is Africa\u2019s largest oil producer but corruption and a failure to invest the proceeds from the industry have hampered development in the country.
\nIt slipped into a recession in 2016 and a slow recovery has meant that not enough jobs have been created to cope with the large number of young people coming into the employment market. Currently nearly a quarter of the working age population is unemployed.
\nBuhari has quelled a militant Islamist rebellion in the north-east of the country, but Boko Haram remains active. There has also been an upsurge in violence in the country\u2019s Middle Belt as traditional herders and more settled farmers have clashed.
\nUp until 1999 Nigeria was governed by either short-lived civilian administrations or military rulers. But this year marks 20 years since the return of democracy.
\nBuhari was elected in 2015 – the first time an opposition candidate had defeated an incumbent to become president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerians will finally go to the polls on for the country\u2019s general election on Saturday following a last-minute postponement of the vote a week ago. The main challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, is the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, 72. Whoever wins will have to address power shortages, corruption, security threats, and a sluggish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-52138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n