By Lucy Caulkett-
Armed men pulled up to a Lagos voting station in a minibus where they fired shots in the air and snatched the presidential ballot box.
The attack is believed to have been from Islamic militants who have constituted a terror to the country for a while now.
Journalists from The Associated Press who witnessed the shots said it sent voters screaming and scattering for cover, as several ballots were dispersed on the floor.
The incident, which was not an isolated one, constitutes one of the many attempts to sabotage the outcome of the Nigerian elections by hostile agents in the troubled country. It is unknown how far such interferences will go on in potentially distorting the overall election votes.
The thuggish incidence exemplifies the high level of insecurity Nigeria faces to the extent of such criminal act in the midst of an election. Several assassinations in the run up to the elections have already taken place, mostly against Labour Party candidates.
In the northeast state of Borno, at least five people including children, were wounded when Boko Haram extremists attacked voters in Gwoza town, according to local authorities.
The national collation of the presidential election will begin at noon according to Mahmood Yakubu, head of Nigeria’s election commission.
“We are making very steady progress and we will continue to ensure that nothing truncates our democracy or truncates the will of the Nigerian people,” said Yakubu, the election chief.
Many voters were still voting beyond the stipulated deadline due to the many structural challenges that obstructed some from voting.
An election expected to be one of the most successful was marred by attacks on polling stations, widespread complaints about late-arriving officials, non-functioning machines, and a disappointingly low presence of security in some polling stations.
At a polling station in Lekki, thugs were seen beating up people voting.
Major rigging were found to have take place, but the perpetrators were caught.
A curious question is why the Nigerian government was unable to hire enough armed soldiers to man all the polling stations and prevent this kind of attack.
The collective lack of common sense initiative in a country where a high percentage of the people is educated is a telling sign of the country’s backwardness.
One observer told The Eye Of Media.Com that all it takes is for one rich man to finance top security in all the polling stations, but the will to contemplate such simple and necessary ideas is lacking in a country of 300million inhabitants.
A cash crisis which left Nigerians who have funds in their bank accounts but were unable to obtain the cash they need for basic essentials like gas and taxis, reportedly prevented some people from even reaching polling stations to cast their votes, and in other cases prevented many from getting home after voting.
Due to the widespread delays and some attacks on polling stations on Saturday, voting ha was postponed until Sunday in parts of the country.
Voting was extended in Cross Rivers State and parts of Bayelsa as a result of earlier delays which saw many voters chanting ‘let us vote,- an expression of the yearning from Nigerians to have their say.
Nigerians will now have to patiently wait to hear who will lead them for the next four years, or possibly eight years, since many of Nigerian leaders like to occupy the country’s top job for as long as possible, leaving it either in the same mess they found it by the time they leave or with a relative improvement of insignificance.
Expert analysts in the country consider the elections one of the country’s most competitive ever elections, after The Labour Party’s Peter Obi presented stiff challenge to the usual predominant arties of the PDP and APC.
International observers flew into the country at various polling stations observing an election process all too important for the many impoverished youths desperate to see a change in the country.
A source from the Nigerian media told this publication that the outcome will be tight and depend on many factors including the perks various voters hope to receive in the event their candidate wins, the overall force of vote buying, tribalistic and religious lines, and all sorts.
‘Its a very tight race, and early polls can be misleading, the source said. By tomorrow, we may get some indication of what way it is going, and who is leading the count, but it can change anytime. It is best to wait until the final results, but these elections is likely to be the most credible ever. Nigerians will by enlarge have their say and pick their new leader”, he said.
Nigerians as a whole still do not appear to understand the importance of selecting the best man to translate its wealth of resources into a great nation, but instead is distracted by many factors, partly affected by the abject level of poverty affecting more than half of its soaring population who have professionals and educated people unable to sustain a high standard of living.
Influence has long been a contributing factor to how Nigerians elect its leaders.
Today, the highly esteemed John Fashanu- a former maverick London born football player who moved to Nigeria many years ago, but owns a number of houses in the Uk urged Nigerians to vote for Peter Obi- the widely respected Labour Party presidential candidate preferred by most Nigerian youths and a high percentage of older Nigerians.
Fashanu’s plea to Nigerians was widely shared on multiple social media platforms, and likely to have swayed a number of Nigerians sitting on the fence, but many Nigerians already had their eyes set on their preferred candidate for the host of reasons already mentioned.
It will now be a waiting game for millions of Nigerians home and abroad.