The court of Nigeria has begun to hear the suits filed by two different candidates and their lawyers over the Nigerian presidential election which they would like overturned. The courts have had security forces block many journalists and reporters from entering while also trying to keep the peace with protestors protesting the government that they see as corrupt and hoarding Nigeria’s resources. The president that won tinubu has been accused by one of his opponents Atiku Abubakar as holding citizenship in the country of guinea which disqualifies him from even running while the other opponent Peter Obi alleges that tinubu tampered with the votes and voting stations. not much evidence that the election was tampered with but the suits are expected to drag on for months through Tinubu’s is inauguration on may 29.
Nigeria is a country that like many others in Africa unfortunately has a very long history of being colonized and suffering due to imperialism which has as a whole underdeveloped it not just economically but politically as well. corruption has been a staple in nigeria and so has the 1% hoarding resources.there’s no evidence as of this moment to prove that tinubu stole the election or interfered in the voting process yet but white nigeria’s voting becoming more electronic and technology supported its possible for it to have been tampered with before it was uploaded. as for the dual internship while it does prevent a citizen from running ( though this might be a non-issue according to some experts it only applies to not nigerian born citizens) they first have to prove he holds dual citizenship and even if they do its very likely that the government would let hm revoke his guinean citizenship. I personally don’t expect much to come out of this but I think protests will heat up regardless of whether or not Tinubu stole the election. The Nigerian people don’t have much faith in the government.
This relates back to government legitimacy and how it needs the people’s support. With the election being called into question, Nigerian citizens are protesting and have to be kept out from storming the courthouse. Even if Tinubu’s elected and gets through the courts with no issue the Nigerian peoples trust in the government has simply eroded and tinubu needs to win it back somehow lest he not get re-elected or worse outed. This also connects to a topic we’ve had here and her but not much of Africa’s colonization and its effects. We don’t talk about it almost at all in IR but with Europe’s pillaging and evil acts of greed most African countries have suffered a multitude of issues which extends past economic and geographical things such as politics with many governments being corrupt or becoming corrupt especially as western intervention is still a big thing.