Easter and Election

Easter Parade 

My friend Luvon, on the left, told me about participating in the Easter Parade on 5th Avenue in New York City. She said, “I love this event. Immediately after leaving the Easter service at Riverside Church, I headed to mid-town.”

Lots of media people were there. Luvon had told me she was going, but I had no idea it was such a major event. Apparently every year there are grander and more amazing Easter hats and clothes.

I don’t know the lady with the gorgeous flowers on her hat. You can see these and  others at TheRoot.com.

Election Follow Up 

I’ve been reading many comments in the media about Nigeria’s election. Dr. Robin Sanders, former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, was one of the international observers of Nigeria’s election. She wrote an excellent opinion piece for the Huffington Post.

Dr. Sanders suggests that Nigeria no longer needs to be talked about primarily for corruption and Boko Haram, but can now be seen as, “A powerhouse nation that can hold credible elections, (albeit isolated irregularities), leading to the over two million vote difference in favor of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari.”

She credits the head of Nigeria’s Elections Commission, Professor Jega, for creating the process that made election rigging unlikely. He also made great strides in informing voters on what they needed to do to register and vote. She praises the voters who exhibited great patience in the face of delays in the electoral machinery. “The entire event was a primer in voter education and mobilization,” she says.

She has high praise for Goodluck Jonathan too. She said that the steps he took helped greatly to ensure peace and acceptance of the result.

She says she never doubted that Nigerians could make this change. Now that it has happened, she concludes, “Buhari has everyone, including me, really rooting for him to succeed.”

Power Behind the Winner

My son and husband talked about Tinubu in conversations before and after the election. They explained that he was the former governor of Lagos State, and had the potential to be a presidential candidate himself.

But he couldn’t be Buhari’s running mate, they said, because having two Muslims running for the top posts would be unacceptable to voters. So he was a manipulator instead.

I learned more about Tinubu in the Financial Times article by William Wallis in Lagos. He said that Tinubu was instrumental in Buhari’s victory. I was surprised that his chieftaincy title, the Jagaban, was “bestowed on him by the town of Borgu, in Nigeria’s north.” He himself is from Lagos.

“Described as “deeply Machiavellian” and a “master strategist” by one of his party peers, the Jagaban has cannily built a political empire among ethnic Yorubas in Lagos and the south west, as formidable, according to allied politicians, as that of Obafemi Awolowo, who led Nigeria’s second largest ethnic block at independence.”

Foreign Policy had a balanced piece on the election results.  The writer showed her sense of humor when she said in her last paragraph, “Although there were some isolated attacks on polling stations, observers said the election was mostly peaceful. Card readers only disrupted voting at a fraction of polling stations. Ironically, one of the polling stations that faced delays was Jonathan’s.”

Congratulations

In other media I read that Former President Shehu Shagari gave an excellent speech congratulating Jonathan on his concession and Buhari on his victory. Shagari’s comments are measured and reasonable. The article reminds readers of how Shagari left office: “[his] government was overthrown by Gen. Buhari in a military coup in the second republic.”

The same piece said, “Congratulations also came from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who said, ‘For me, the totality of 2015 elections hold many lessons for our democracy and democratisation process which are both maturing,'”

Tough Times Ahead

Several article talked about the difficult time that Buhari faces. Voters chose him to make change; now he has to fulfill voters’ expectations, was the general tone of several writers.

A piece in The New York Times lays out the difficulties confronting the president-elect, the fall in oil price, endemic corruption, and Boko Haram to name just three.

“But the president-elect has made clear that he is aware of the challenges before him. More important, the Nigerian electorate, which gave him and his All Progressives Congress party 55 percent of its vote across geographic, religious and tribal lines, has made clear that it is thoroughly sick of corruption and Boko Haram.” I join the chorus of hopeful people that Buhari will make a difference.

Praise from Westport Sunrise Rotary 

I spoke about Nigeria and my memoir for the Westport Sunrise Rotary last Friday morning. The audience was wonderful.

I love sharing information about the country, its history and its strengths. I added news about the election results.

There were great questions, as usual. I sold ten books.

The program chair who had made the arrangements sent a lovely email: “Thank you so much for a really wonderful presentation on Friday.  I heard from a few members over the weekend who were very complimentary.”

The Sunrise Rotary also donated two books about Nigeria to the Westport Library in my honor. Isn’t that thoughtful?