Polls strike in Nigeria

ABUJA – A two-day, stay-at-home strike called to protest Nigeria’s flawed elections got underway yesterday, with traffic thin and many city centres emptier than usual a day before President-elect Umaru Yar’Adua takes power.

Labour unions arranged the work stoppage after Yar’Adua’s governing party won by a landslide an April vote that the opposition has rejected as rigged and international observers said was not credible. Yar’Adua is due to take over from outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo today in Nigeria’s first-ever civilian-to-civilian handover of power.Schools were shut nationwide yesterday, and banks closed in many city centres across the nation.Markets, where workers are unsalaried and must earn money to buy food, opened in many communities, but without the usual bustle.Many Nigerians ascribed the diminished activities to rumours that yesterday was a national holiday, as some local radio stations reported.However, there was no official notice at the federal level for a day off yesterday, though today has been declared a holiday for Yar’Adua’s inauguration.Many pupils were told on Friday not to go to school yesterday, which would normally have been an annual school holiday marking ‘Children’s’ Day’.Banks were also shut, but workers in the main city of Lagos said that was because they believed it was a public holiday.In the capital, Abuja, it was business as usual.The sparsely populated city, where Yar’Adua’s investiture is to take place, is a created capital where few people live and is the seat of the federal government.Civil servants went to work as usual, and banks and markets opened, although schools were shuttered.Streets were mostly empty in northern Nigeria, where opposition party structures are strong, but some cars and pedestrians were seen.The unions, which claim millions of workers among Nigeria’s 140 million people, are demanding an interim government take over from Obasanjo and rerun the April elections.The government has refused.Obasanjo’s ruling People’s Democratic Party won the April general elections in a landslide.But irregularities were on open display, with reporters witnessing thugs stealing ballot boxes, buying votes and intimidating voters, who cast ballots in the open without privacy.Electoral officials thumbprinted ballots and stuffed boxes.In some wards no vote was held at all, with massive wins later declared for the ruling party candidate, observers said.The opposition says the ruling party rigged the vote, and international observers said it failed to live up to a standard that would have definitively reflected the will of the electorate.Nampa-APYar’Adua is due to take over from outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo today in Nigeria’s first-ever civilian-to-civilian handover of power.Schools were shut nationwide yesterday, and banks closed in many city centres across the nation.Markets, where workers are unsalaried and must earn money to buy food, opened in many communities, but without the usual bustle.Many Nigerians ascribed the diminished activities to rumours that yesterday was a national holiday, as some local radio stations reported.However, there was no official notice at the federal level for a day off yesterday, though today has been declared a holiday for Yar’Adua’s inauguration.Many pupils were told on Friday not to go to school yesterday, which would normally have been an annual school holiday marking ‘Children’s’ Day’.Banks were also shut, but workers in the main city of Lagos said that was because they believed it was a public holiday.In the capital, Abuja, it was business as usual.The sparsely populated city, where Yar’Adua’s investiture is to take place, is a created capital where few people live and is the seat of the federal government.Civil servants went to work as usual, and banks and markets opened, although schools were shuttered.Streets were mostly empty in northern Nigeria, where opposition party structures are strong, but some cars and pedestrians were seen.The unions, which claim millions of workers among Nigeria’s 140 million people, are demanding an interim government take over from Obasanjo and rerun the April elections.The government has refused.Obasanjo’s ruling People’s Democratic Party won the April general elections in a landslide.But irregularities were on open display, with reporters witnessing thugs stealing ballot boxes, buying votes and intimidating voters, who cast ballots in the open without privacy.Electoral officials thumbprinted ballots and stuffed boxes.In some wards no vote was held at all, with massive wins later declared for the ruling party candidate, observers said.The opposition says the ruling party rigged the vote, and international observers said it failed to live up to a standard that would have definitively reflected the will of the electorate.Nampa-AP