Nigeria Commission Sets Date For 2019 Presidential Election

The 2019 elections are drawing near, and there's a palpable sense of uncertainty. With the most recent being the Ekiti governorship election, PDP lost gubernatorial elections in Edo, Ondo as well as a number of legislative re-run elections across the county. On Tuesday, 16 senators quit President Muhammadu Buhari's ruling party and the country's third most senior politician said he might follow suit, in a blow to the leader who is seeking re-election next year.

With the 2019 elections less than a year away, Nigeria's ability to hold free and fair elections is open to question. 2019 elections. Atiku Abubakar, a former Nigerian vice president, has been the most high profile figure to leave the party. The insurgency, which has affected 14 million Nigerians, resulting in 1.7 million being displaced, still poses a significant threat in the north-east.

Such was the case when the former president, General Olusegun Obasanjo declared in 2007 that the April elections would be a do-or-die affair for the country and his ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Violent clashes could potentially ensue if the security situation is not addressed before the elections.

It is true that almost all the kidnapped Dapchi schoolsgirls have been released, including some of those of Chibok through negotiation and or swap deals, it also shows Buhari too does not have the magic in addressing the nation's security challenge. Buhari had made his declaration after a prolonged silence on April 9 during the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the APC.

Mr Tayo is a London-based broadcast journalist at the BBC, and is also an associate fellow with the Chatham House Africa Programme, specialising in Nigerian politics, media and elections. Politicians have been known to arm youths prior to elections in order to seek undue advantage over their political opponents.

The duo warned the security operatives to be proactive so that unscrupulous elements would not disrupt the elections. Atiku Abubakar, 71, a former vice president and erstwhile Buhari ally, is the most prominent figure so far to have announced his intention to run in 2019 under an opposition platform.

Since the 2015 polls, which saw the party's ouster at the federal level and some states, the PDP has lost many other elections. Yakubu appealed to Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the ongoing nationwide display of the particulars of new voters for claims and objections as required by law.

In the middle of the (2011-2015) period a major re-organisation took place in Nigeria's political class with the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the present ruling party at the centre. Among the presidential aspirants are eight from the main opposition PDP while the rest are drawn from other registered political parties.

Expectedly, however, there have been growing concerns in the APC on the implications of ill-treating members of the nPDP by those who know and understand it. This is because according to the concerned APC members, a similar development like this unsettled the PDP ahead of the 2015 elections and paved the way for the APC victory.

If they don't, then Buhari's re-election bid will be at risk. Findings conducted by United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on electoral violence risk assessment in Nigeria have suggested possible escalation of electoral violence before the 2019 general elections.