Skip to footer

Nigeria's ballots vs. Boko Haram's bullets

A delay of the Nigerian presidential election is unfortunate but perhaps necessary to ensure a credible vote. An improved democracy is the best weapon against terrorists.

|
AP Photo
Attahiru Jega, head of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, speaks during a Feb. 7 news conference about postponing presidential and legislative elections until March 28.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

For all the military force thrown at terrorist groups like Islamic State or the Taliban, the best shock and awe still remains a credible election. A fair and peaceful vote can serve as a bulwark of liberty against jihadist claims to rule by brutal decree. And of all the Islamist insurgencies in the world, the one most likely to be rolled back soon by a potent round of democracy is Boko Haram.

The group has stepped up its attacks in Nigeria just before elections that were scheduled there this month, casting a shadow over the voting process in Africa’s biggest economy. Over the past year, Boko Haram’s advances in the mainly Muslim north have displaced about 1 million people and killed more than 10,000. Only about 40 percent of Nigerians have received voting cards while the military claims it is not ready to protect enough polling places.

For these reasons, the presidential and National Assembly elections have been delayed to March 28 by the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission. Local elections will be held April 11.

In addition, President Goodluck Jonathan, who is in a tight race against a former dictator, Muhammadu Buhari, claims the military will now make a major effort to roll back Boko Haram in coming weeks, despite past failures to do so. Perhaps he is serious because the African Union just authorized a force of 7,500 soldiers from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Benin to join the fight, while the French military will provide aerial surveillance. “All known Boko Haram camps will be taken out” by the time of the vote, said National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki to Agence France-Presse news service.

Boko Haram has broadened its attacks to neighboring countries in an effort to set up an Islamic empire, or caliphate. The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in a recent video that its fight is not only with Africa but with the world, specifically anyone who “doesn’t obey Allah and the prophet.”

Nigeria has enjoyed a relatively stable democracy for only the past 15 years, despite deep divides between its Christian and Muslim populations. The coming presidential election will be the first between two major parties and one that is also relatively close. Delaying the election was not an easy decision, and it may indeed favor the president and his party. Yet ensuring a credible and safe election remains the best response to the fanatical radicalism of groups like Boko Haram. Peaceful ballots are more powerful than terrorist bullets.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Nigeria's ballots vs. Boko Haram's bullets
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2015/0209/Nigeria-s-ballots-vs.-Boko-Haram-s-bullets
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe