Browsing: Nigeria 2023 elections

Driven by a deep-seated hunger for change in Nigeria, on pins and needles citizens remain, eagerly awaiting the announcement of the country’s next president, which should happen any time from now, following the February 25th  general election. The slow collation and reporting of the votes by Nigeria’s electoral commission, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has only fueled the anxiety, coupled with whispers of electoral interference that the Commission has thwarted.

The three front-runners out of the initial 18 candidates are Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar. Results from 176,846 polling stations are being counted manually and then relayed electronically to the INEC’s headquarters in Abuja, which then posts them on its website.

As of February 28, Tinubu leads in 25 out of Nigeria’s 36 states. Tinubu leads with 36% which translates to 7 million of the valid votes counted, Atiku is close behind with 30% an equivalent of …

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, has not been spared either. Food staples are scarcer in Nigeria than ever before as the government tries to deal with a record inflation rate, indicating that the country may be in danger of experiencing a food crisis. Staple food costs have risen for a third year as Africa’s most populous nation succumbs to the onslaught of causes that are pushing an estimated 200 million people into poverty.

Because it relies on oil imports, Nigeria, a major petroleum producer, has a very fragile economy. Nigeria has been left vulnerable as oil prices have surged to a historic high. Increased political instability, the consequences of climate change, and the COVID-19 aftermath have all harmed Nigeria’s economy, sending the value of its currency down even more against the dollar.

As a result, the poverty rate in the country has remained at around 50%. According to the UN’s food …

President Buhari of Nigeria is keen to complete critical infrastructure projects as elections approach next year.

One of these projects is the Lagos light rail train project, which has gathered dust for decades. The project is back in motion, with the state government optimistic that the first phase of the Blue Line – one of the two lines to form the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) system – will be operational this year.

Power infrastructure is a crucial area of interest. The country is rushing on the six-year multi-billion-dollar pact with German company Siemens to expand and revamp the dysfunctional national grid to unlock at least 25,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2025.

On the renewable energy side, the government is working on the 3,050 MW Mambilla Hydropower Project in Taraba, which has dragged on for over 40 years despite significant budgetary allocations.…

At the start of the year, state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was photographed inspecting two high-speed trains purchased from the United States of America for the Red Line, which is expected to form the second spoke of the LRMT. The line runs from Marina to Agbado, 30 kilometres from Lagos.

The Blue and Red lines, when complete, are expected to move more than a million people across the expansive metropolis daily, addressing the heavy congestion that has become common within the city.

The light rail project was first contemplated a few decades ago, the initial projections indicating that the Blue Line would be completed in 2011. However, the project was weighed down by a myriad of challenges, including bureaucracy, corruption, mismanagement, and funding.

The light rail project is one of the numerous long-delayed plans to connect Nigeria by rail that has been invigorated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.…