Criminal Politics: Violence, “Godfathers” and Corruption in Nigeria

killed during the weeks surrounding the voting exercise alone. 42 The violence that
accompanied the 2007 polls was widespread and openly organized on such a scale
as to lay bare deeper patterns of corruption and abuse in politics to an unusual
degree.
The run-up to the elections saw political assassinations, bombings, and deadly
clashes between rival gangs—organized by politicians and parties—that claimed at
least one hundred lives. Human Rights Watch documented the patterns of these
killings during the pre-election period. 43 European Union election observers
subsequently estimated that some 200 people died in political violence during the
two weeks surrounding the voting on April 14 and April 21. 44 Many more were injured.
During the 2007 elections pervasive violence discouraged many Nigerians from
coming out to vote, and voter turnout was very low across the country. 45 Prior to the
elections Human Rights Watch interviewed many would-be voters who said that they
intended to stay home rather than cast their votes. Several explained this by stating
simply, “I don’t want to die.” 46 One retiree in the town of Oye Ekiti told Human Rights
Watch that “the elderly people are scared and so are the women. They can go a step
further by instructing their children, ‘please keep away from that polling booth—I
don’t want you to die now.’” 47
In a town in Oyo State, Human Rights Watch interviewed one opposition All Nigerian
Peoples Party (ANPP) supporter whose home was besieged by a large group of pro-
PDP thugs she believed to be drunk one evening shortly before the elections. The
42 Human Rights Watch, The Unacknowledged Violence.
43 Human Rights Watch, Election or “Selection?” Human Rights Abuse and Threats to Free and Fair Elections in Nigeria, April
2007, pp. 11-18, http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/nigeria0407.
44 European Union Election Observation Mission, “Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions,” April 23, 2007,
http://www.eueom-ng.org (accessed July 12, 2007).
45 Official government figures indicated nationwide voter turnout of over 50 percent, but all credible international and
domestic observers found such figures implausible. Diplomatic officials and election observers interviewed by Human Rights
Watch estimated turnout at no higher than 20 percent across most of the country on the day of the presidential election.
Human Rights Watch interviews, Abuja, April 2007. See also National Democratic Institute, “Statement of the National
Democratic Institute (NDI) International Election Observer Delegation to Nigeria’s April 21 Presidential and National Assembly
Elections,” April 23, 2007, http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/2151_ng_election_statement_042307.pdf.
46 Human Rights Watch interviews, Lagos and Port Harcourt, April 2007.
47 Human Rights Watch interview, Oye Ekiti, April 7, 2007.
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