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The 1999 Presidential Elections in Nigeria: The Unresolved Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Julius O. Ihonvbere
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Extract

One can say with certainty that all the contradictions that had bedeviled previous democratic experiments in Nigeria were present and magnified in the February 27, 1999 election: divided loyalties, manipulation of primordial identities and loyalties, corruption and other election malpractices, lack of political discipline, and limited attention to serious structural questions.

Why did Chief Olu Falae lose the election to General Olusegun Obasanjo? Several reasons can be advanced. First, Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) clearly had more money. Obasanjo was able to donate N 130 million and several cars to his party.

Type
Part 2: Transition Without Transformation?
Information
African Issues , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , 1999 , pp. 59 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999 

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References

Notes

1. “Nigeria’s Presidential Election,” The New York Times, March 1, 1999.

2. Edwards-Adebiyi, Remi, “Death of the Political Class?” The Guardian (Lagos), March 13, 1999 Google Scholar; see also Keneth Owoghiri, “PDP Intellectual Youth Movement” (Advertorial), Thisday, January 30, 1999.

3. Wole Soyinka, “The Federal Quest” (keynote address at the international conference, “New Directions in Federalism in Africa,” organized by the African Center for Democratic Governance, Abuja, Nigeria, March 15, 1999).

4. Anthony Enahoro, letter to Alhaji Abdul Karim Daiyabu, Alexandria, Virginia, January 25, 1999.

5. The New York Times, “Nigeria’s Presidential Election.”

6. Ifegwu, Joy D.U., “Report of the Chairman: Citizens International Bank Limited,” The Guardian (Lagos), December 16, 1998 Google Scholar.

7. Ibid.