EDITORIAL: Looking beyond Nigeria’s flawed election
Bola Tinubu's victory is also a victory for democracy in Africa
It would be churlish for outsiders not to congratulate Nigerians and their incoming president after his inauguration following a hugely contested, and probably flawed, election. The inauguration of Bola Tinubu, the 70-year-old politician, as Nigeria’s president on Monday marked a significant milestone for Africa’s most populous country, and the continent, and should be allowed to unleash the country’s huge potential to overcome its many challenges.
Tinubu’s elevation to president of Africa’s largest, but less diversified, economy, has not been glitch-free. Like most of his peers in the continent’s strong democracies, save for despotic regimes such as Rwanda’s de facto one-party state, he came to power with a thin margin (37%) to his predecessors. This is not a commentary on his popularity; rather, most voters who are disillusioned with politics are choosing to stay away from polls. Uniquely, most of Nigeria’s voters are in the diaspora...
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