| dc.description.abstract | This paper interrogates the postponement of the 2019 general elections in Nigeria
and the attendant international responses it elicited. It noted that Nigeria’s
national elections had been similarly postponed in 2011 and 2015, respectively.
However, the 2019 postponement attracted a lot of local and international
attention given the growing political consciousness of the electorates, the timing
of the postponement and global expectations. In other words, the postponement
had far reaching effects on the nation’s external image and drew notable responses
because of the place of Nigeria in Africa’s democracy and global politics. Based on
preliminary investigation gleaned from reports, comments and opinions used as
instruments to measure the effects of the electoral processes, the paper upholds that
the postponement of the February 16, 2019 elections to February 23, 2019, just few
hours to its commencement by the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) on the basis of logistics and operations did not portray the nation well in
the diplomatic community. Therefore, initial responses and comments from the
International Elections Observation Missions, the United Kingdom and the United
States appeared not to have properly gauged the quantum of damages done to
Nigeria by the re-scheduling of the election dates as comments and responses seems
to have, at best, been couched to douse tension and to avoid diplomatic blunder and
row. The paper concluded that since the damage had been done, it was incumbent
on the citizens, diplomats, scholars and INEC to redress the image of the country
in the global community through citizenship diplomacy, good representations,
writings that aimed at correcting the anomaly to project the country well in the
diaspora and adequate preparation and conduct for the next elections. | en_US |
