Word: obasanjo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...votes aren't all counted in Nigeria's presidential election, and that's just part of the problem. With the ballots from 31 of the country's 36 states in, the favorite, General Olusegun Obasanjo, is more than five million votes ahead, and his opponent, former finance minister Olu Falae, is charging widespread voter fraud as the reason why. So far, international observers say only that the cheating has been done by both sides. But the election broke down pretty much as expected, with Obasanjo sweeping the northern territories that are home to the military elite that supports his candidacy...
Despite four decades of independence, the trappings of electoral democracy proved to be something of a novelty for Nigeria. There were no significant policy differences between candidates -- Obasanjo didn't even show up for a televised debate. Besides voting early and often, some Nigerians had reportedly been voting their pocketbooks, selling the franchise for $1.10, and neither candidate's party had much of a history or an ideology. Yet millions of Nigerians turned out to vote for a civilian government to end 15 years of military rule...
...Fierce ethnic and regional conflicts make it difficult for civilian politicians to muster national electoral support in a country that has known only nine years of civilian rule. One of the few politicians capable of uniting the nation might be recently released prisoner General Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo has support both in the rebellious south and among his former colleagues in the military -- and he's the only Nigerian military ruler ever to have handed over power to an elected civilian government...
...March, Abacha's regime, claiming it had uncovered a coup plot, rounded up Obasanjo and about 60 other well-known dissidents. In July, the government announced that 40 of the accused had been convicted and sentenced--but it refused to disclose their names, what crimes they had supposedly committed or what their punishment would be. According to sources in the Nigerian exiles' community, Obasanjo has been sentenced to life in prison. Others have been condemned to death. Last week, even as Abacha claimed to be reviewing the harsh sentences, his secret police arrested still more dissidents, including Obasanjo's lawyer...
...believed to have stashed in the U.S. and Europe, or even boycotting Nigerian oil. But such punitive measures will not work without moral pressure from those who have allowed the dictators' behavior to pass unchallenged. Above all, Nigerians crave the respect of the rest of the world. Freeing Obasanjo and the other political prisoners would be a tiny first step in showing they deserve...