Presidential elections will be held in Nigeria this Saturday the 16th of February 2019. This will be the sixth time that an election has been held every four years, since the end of military rule in 1999. Our family has started stockpiling supplies in case of lock down and curfews implemented due to violence. Cason and Jolie’s school has already given them off Friday and Monday.
Elections in Nigeria have always been a volatile subject. 2007 elections were described as “the worst they had ever seen anywhere in the world”, with “rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation.
2011 elections were postponed and there was tension over whether a Muslim or a Christian should be President.
Our family was in Nigeria during 2015 elections and it was mostly very peaceful. All the nationals forecasted Buhari’s win and that it would be a peaceful handover and they were right.
This year, 2019, the forecast is not so positive. Concerns with terrorist attacks on elections institutions, violence toward voters, observers, or electoral officials, the use of armed gangs for voter intimidation, and widespread vote buying.
The U.S. has warned against violence during the February 2019 general elections in Nigeria, and U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington says,
“I can tell you from my impressions during my travels and my previous service in Nigeria that I fear there will be some violence around these elections, as has been the case with previous elections. I do not anticipate large-scale nationwide conflict, but rather localized violence. We look at states that are currently tense, especially if state-level politics are contentious like those in Benue, Plateau, as well as those in high-stakes locations with large populations such as Kano”.
We know our God is a big God and his word says in Romans 13:1
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
Please pray for Nigeria this weekend. The entire nation waits to see who the next President is and if the losing candidates will be humble and show the world that Nigeria is a country moving forward.
Miles In Missions 