Completed ballot papers lie trampled in the gutter in Lagos

He hates getting up early, but this morning Rueben Olagunju set his alarm clock at half past six. For the first time in his life, the 28-year-old Nigerian will vote. He has been eligible to vote since he was eighteen, but he never saw the point: “The system is so corrupt, I didn’t think my vote would make a difference.” What makes these national elections different? “For the first time I feel like I have a choice.”

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On Saturday, the inhabitants of Africa’s largest economy went to the polls and it promises to be exciting on many fronts. Rueben is one of the many Nigerian young people who applied en masse for the first time in the run-up to these national elections. Of these newly registered voters, 80 percent are under 34, and that age group now makes up a whopping 40 percent of the electorate. It is a political landslide for the national government, traditionally dominated by people in their seventies and eighties.

Also new is that three presidential candidates seem to have a chance this time. Alongside those of the governing party APC and the largest opposition party PDP, which have ruled the roost for decades, the star of the relatively unknown Labor Party candidate has risen to great heights in a short time. This is because young people in particular have embraced this Peter Obi – who is 61 years young compared to the seventies of the other parties. So does Rueben: “I think Obi is the only one who can bring about change,” he says. “And that is urgently needed. This country is a total ruin.”

‘Everyone wants to leave Nigeria’

He is on his way to the polling station within walking distance of his parental home. That he still lives with his parents at his age is a sign of the times. Unemployment is sky-high: one-third of adults are unemployed, and one-fifth of those who do work far below their level and income requirement. So Rueben, like many of his contemporaries, hustles his money together as a self-proclaimed real estate agent cum actor cum online content creator annex brand influencer. “Young people have lost hope and everyone wants to leave Nigeria. But I believe: Nigeria can be great again.”

The polling station is little more than a plastic table and a few lawn chairs in the shade of three residential towers in Central Surulere, a middle-class neighborhood on mainland Lagos. Car tires next to it show the three ballot boxes: in addition to a new president, the Nigerians also elect a new senate and parliament.

Tolu (28) and Grace (25) only just found out, they say slyly after voting for the first time in their lives. “I thought it was only about the president,” admits Grace. When it turned out that there were more choices, the interior designer knew one thing for sure: the old political parties were excluded. “In any case, no PDP or APC.” Her friend nods in agreement.

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It not only shows the unfamiliarity with the electoral process of many young Nigerians, but also how fed up they are with the established order. “No gas, no cash, no food, things have only gotten worse here,” Grace summarizes the dissatisfaction. Like Rueben, they stick around at their polling stations to make sure the counting of votes is done fairly after the polls close. “This time the elections are transparent,” Reuben says confidently, proudly displaying the index finger he dipped into the ink to cast his vote. For the first time, the identity of voters is checked using biometric data. “No one is going to run off with our votes this time.”

Squad

In Idi Araba, a working-class neighborhood five kilometers away in the same Surulere district, voters are no longer so sure. It is half past two and there is no sign of polling station 35. Green shards of glass do sparkle in the street and loads of completed ballot papers lie trampled in the gutter. The employees of the INEC election committee are nowhere to be found, but here and there groups of people are talking. They do not want their name in the newspaper for fear of more violence, but they do want to tell what happened.

For years, thugs have been deployed by the established parties to influence the electoral process

“An hour ago we suddenly heard a noise,” says a woman who had just cast her vote and was waiting for a friend. “Then bottles flew through the air. Everyone started running and I got hurt.” She points to her heel where shards left deep cuts. The bystanders disagree about which party the robbers belonged to, but one thing they all say: these were political thugs who believed that the results were going in the wrong direction. These kinds of thugs have been used by the established parties for years to influence the electoral process.

Violence is a proven strategy in Nigeria to deter people from voting, especially in neighborhoods that traditionally opt for the opposition. An effective method, because the results of this location in Idi Araba are canceled and the voters who were registered here see their votes go up in smoke. “See how they strip us of our democratic rights,” says a man with a graying beard, shaking his head at the ditch with the crumpled ballot papers.

It is not the only place in Surulere where things go wrong this election day. There are now reports from various locations in the district that ballot boxes are being destroyed or stolen. Shots were fired a little further in Ojuelegba, and in Aguda, on the other side of the district, fighting broke out in several places. Voters are also intimidated, as can be seen on a video of a polling place in Aguda that went viral. “Go home if you don’t vote for APC. I know where to find you”, a broad-shouldered man threatens those waiting in line.

Whether the violence is widespread enough to affect the results is open to question. But it is a clear signal that the old corrupt system will not give up power so easily. Rueben’s optimism has not yet suffered. They may not make a difference this time, but the group of young people in this country will only grow, he says: “Whatever the result of these elections may be, we have done our best.”