Source: Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin, February 1, 2023
On February 25, Nigerians will elect a new president amid gross insecurity, escalating Islamic terror, and soaring ethnic and religious tensions. Normally a two-horse race, this year is different with four leading candidates hailing from the four corners of Nigeria and its three leading tribes. Three are Muslim, one is Christian. Many fear the presidential election could cause the country to blow apart. Should that happen, it would trigger a crisis of monumental, even genocidal proportions, especially for Nigeria’s long-suffering Christians in the volatile mixed Middle Belt and predominately Muslim North.
Labour’s Peter Obi—an ethnic Igbo from the southeast and the only Christian among the four main candidates—is leading in the polls but unlikely to win in the first round, meaning Nigeria is heading for its first-ever presidential runoff. Analysts anticipate that thugs in the southwest and fundamentalist Muslims across the north will attack polling stations in opposition strongholds and Igbo residential areas to depress voter turnout there. Lagos, Kano, and Kaduna have been identified as states where the risk of electoral violence is extreme.
Read the full article and pray. RLPB is doing a whole series on Nigeria.