Word: ibadan
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...ballots entirely. In heavy Awolowo precincts, polling places mysteriously ran out of ballots, and Akintola's party stalwarts stuffed the ballot boxes in others. "Men became pregnant with ballot papers," chortled one observer. All urns, of course, had to be shipped immediately to the regional capital at Ibadan for Akintola's "official" counting, and when it was all over, the only surprise was the size of his victory: 78 seats to 18. "The West has gone too far," said the nation's leading political commentator Peter Enahoro. "But I do not think one can honestly say that...
Nails in Heads. True enough, but the final word was not yet in. Frustrated at the polls, Westerners looked elsewhere for satisfaction. Playwright Wole Soyinka stormed into the government radio station at Ibadan to demand new elections; he was arrested. Market women closed down their stalls in protest, leaving many towns short of food. Riots in one town left 35 dead. An other town was burned to the ground, and at Abeokuta, Awolowo supporters drove nails into the heads of a pro-Northern judge and his court clerk. All told, more than 70 persons were killed and hundreds injured...
Faced with the threat of a major civil uprising, Northerners last week began to look for compromise. Nigeria's Chief Justice Adetokunbo Ademola sped off to Ibadan to try to hammer a coalition government under Akintola together. For Awolowo's cheated followers, coalition left much to be desired, but it would at least be better than nothing. "Any region that does not ally itself with the North will surely fade," said one realistic loser last week. "If we remain in the opposition for five more years, we shall be relegated to the burying grounds...
JAMES H. MEREDITH University of Ibadan Nigeria, West Africa...
...which are where. Two weeks ago, "preliminary" results of last fall's census were released, showing an astounding 64% jump, to 55.6 million people. Since the main "increase" came in the politically dominant north, suspicious southerners cried foul. Riots broke out, and more than a thousand students in Ibadan chartered buses and headed for Lagos to demonstrate. They were turned back by steel-helmeted cops with tear...