Maraba, Nigeria---Polling was supposed to have begun, but election officials were nowhere to be found, so one community on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital decided to start the election on their own Saturday morning.
Shortly after 8:00 am (0700 GMT) Teddy Oheje stood on a ledge at the White House polling station in the town of Maraba, Nasarawa state, writing numbers sequentially in blue ink on scraps of paper, distributing the tickets one-by-one to a large crowd of anxious voters.
"They are supposed to be here by now, so instead of us waiting for them we had to organise ourselves," Oheje, 31, told AFP, referring to officials from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
"You can't just expect us to sit down and wait...Everybody is here, ready to exercise his franchise," he said.
Nigeria's 2015 campaign has been the closest fought since independence and for the first time ever there is uncertainty about the likely winner, with President Goodluck Jonathan seeking a second term against ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.
The closeness of the contest has added energy to the campaign, evident in the masses of voters crowding outside the polling station in Maraba, some of whom said they had been there since before sunrise.
Partly to contain frustration over INEC's initial no-show, local leaders decided to organise voters in a numbered queue so that registration could begin immediately once the officials arrived.
Locals could hardly wait to get polling started.
"We have been waiting for so long for God to show us the day," said 35-year-old Hassan Yesuza Ziga.
Fatima Saliyu, an 18-year-old student seeking to vote for the first time, said she just hoped for "peace and unity" during the polls.
"We want to vote for...one who can lead us," she told AFP, with her baby brother strapped to her back.
Underscoring security fears surrounding the vote, the military put central Abuja under lockdown, with no vehicles allowed in or out of the city unless they were displaying an INEC badge.
The roads around major government buildings were completely empty, amid fears of partisan unrest as well as attacks by Boko Haram Islamists, following threats from the group to disrupt the vote.
- Technical problems -
When INEC did show up, shortly before 10:00 am -- or two hours late -- the enthusiasm of the crowd was tempered by clear failures in INEC's new voter authentication system.
The much debated electronic voter card readers being used for the first time have been criticised by the ruling People’s Democratic Party but backed by the opposition All Progressives Congress.
AFP
