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Nigerian election a key step toward democracy

A Nigerian passes by a wall in Lagos covered with legislative and presidential campaign posters

February 19, 1999
Web posted at: 4:52 p.m. EST (2152 GMT)

ABUJA, Nigeria (CNN) -- Voters in Nigeria are going to the polls on Saturday in elections that mark a key moment in the military government's plan to return the West African nation to civilian administration after years of military rule.

About 40 million voters will elect national assembly representatives under Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar's plan to restore democracy to the oil-rich nation of 108 million people.

At stake are 360 seats in the House of Representatives and 109 in the Senate. The poll is seen as a key test before February 27 presidential elections in which former military ruler Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo -- the only Nigerian officer ever to cede power to a civilian administration -- is expected to win.

Obasanjo's party, the Peoples Democratic Party, has won substantial victories in local and state elections over the past two months.

Since those elections, Nigeria's two other parties, the Alliance for Democracy and the All Peoples Party, have joined forces to field a joint candidate, former Finance Minister Olu Falae.

All three parties promise to tackle the country's major economic crisis, corruption and widespread poverty.

Party platforms are meant to appeal, for instance, to the hundreds of thousands of Nigerians living without a basic infrastructure in the dilapidated neighborhoods of the teeming commercial capital, Lagos.

"We want proper electricity supply, proper water supply so Nigerians can lead a normal life," one woman said Friday, the last day of campaigning.

In thousands of villages and towns throughout the country, people are hoping that the election will finally bring a change for the better.

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Many of those communities are in urgent need of clean drinking water, better roads, and better schools.

Nigeria, crippled by years of rampant corruption and widespread mismanagement, remains mired in poverty despite earning billions of dollars a year from oil revenue.

Among those party candidates promising a change for the better are many retired generals. However, the nation is passionately divided over whether it is good for military men to seek high office as Nigeria tries to loosen the grip of the army, which is widely blamed for stealing or wasting the oil dollars.

Soldiers have ruled Nigeria for all but 10 years since its independence from Britain in 1960, and several military regimes have given the nation a reputation of widespread human rights abuses.

Saturday's national assembly election will be followed a week later by presidential balloting

Among the candidates in Saturday's race is Lola Abiola-Edewor. She is the daughter of Moshood Abiola, who died in detention after he was locked up by dictator Gen. Sani Abacha in 1994 for declaring himself president on the basis of elections the previous year. Those polls were regarded as some of Nigeria's fairest ever but were annulled by the military as Abiola was about to win.

Nigeria's current military ruler Gen. Abubakar -- who took the helm of the nation after Abacha's unexpected and sudden death -- has implemented a series of pro-democracy reforms and repeatedly pledged to stand down after the presidential elections.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.