Sunday said many Igbos who left were scared they would be targeted in postelection rioting. “The tension now come down, and people are now feeling lively,” he said.
Voters’ disillusionment has many roots, analysts say. Election results are often challenged in court, and politicians spout fiery rhetoric that can incite violence.
“The stakes are very high. Both sides are frequently fighting to the death, as it were. No side is able to concede to the basic decency with each other,” political commentator Chris Ngwodo said. “People look at all that, and they react by being skeptical, by being cynical.”
But that isn’t to say Nigerians are apathetic over who will run their country for the next four years.
Rallies organized by the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party regularly draw thousands of Nigerians, who hope their candidate can improve conditions, create jobs and fight off Boko Haram.
But amid a global drop in the price of oil — Nigeria’s key export — there’s skepticism whether whoever wins will have the money to improve the livelihoods of Nigerians, almost half of whom live under the national poverty line.
“Since the First Republic, politicians have been making the same arguments in the country,” said Abubakar Kari, a lecturer at the University of Abuja, referring to Nigeria’s government from 1963 to 1966, which ended in a military coup. “In most cases, these are promises that are hollow and empty.”
Even with the delay, questions remain over whether all eligible Nigerians will be able to vote. The INEC has distributed only about 67 percent of voter cards, Jega said. That leaves millions of people without the identification necessary to vote.
And ridding the country’s northeast of Boko Haram in six weeks — even with the help of neighbors Chad, Niger and Cameroon — is, at the least, a daunting prospect.