Aspirations and Realities in Africa: Nigeria’s Emerging Two-Party System?

Issue Date July 2019
Volume 30
Issue 3
Page Numbers 109-123
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This article reviews Nigeria’s recently concluded 2019 general elections, which mark twenty years of unbroken civil rule. It considers the impact of the election-management body’s technological solutions to vote fraud and concludes that notwithstanding logistical challenges, a low turnout, vote-buying and pockets of violence, the era of wholesale election-rigging in Nigeria appears to be over. Despite attempts at creating a “third force” in Nigerian politics, a two-party system seems to be evolving. The article examines the main opposition’s better-than-expected performance, and factors that may affect the ruling party in its efforts to retain the upper hand.

About the Author

Ayo Obe is a Lagos-based legal practitioner and registered voter in Nigeria. A former head of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation, she was head of Nigeria’s Transition Monitoring Group, was a member of the Police Service Commission, and headed the National Democratic Institute’s Abuja Elections Programme from 2006 to 2009.

View all work by Ayo Obe

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