The electoral commission barred Vice President Atiku Abubakar from Nigeria’s crucial elections, omitting his name from the roster of two dozen approved candidates vying to lead Africa’s most-populous nation. Abubakar’s camp said it would contest the ruling in court.
The electoral commission gave no reason for its exclusion on Thursday of Abubakar, who is involved in a public feud with the president and is one of three front-runners in the race, but listed constitutional prohibitions on candidates indicted for crimes before a court or executive panel.
A panel arranged by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s executive branch earlier concluded that Abubakar had embezzled state funds.
Abubakar’s camp called the panel unconstitutional and denied the allegations, saying they stemmed from a public spat between Abubakar and his boss, who’s now an ardent political foe.
Abubakar’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, said his campaign would soon launch a court appeal against the decision by the electoral commission.
“The vice president is a law-and-order candidate who believes in the due process of the law,” Shehu said.
With only weeks left before the April 21 elections, Thursday’s decision appeared to set up an endgame to the long-running battle between the Abubakar and Obasanjo’s camps, which split last year after Abubakar came out against a drive to amend the constitution and allow Obasanjo a third elected term.
The commission has not said when it would have to start printing ballots to ensure they are distributed in time for 61 million registered voters in a country twice the size of California to have them for the ballot. Nigeria has many farflung regions and villages unconnected by roads.
Abubakar has won nearly one dozen court cases related to his candidacy over the past months.
Lawyers say now only the nation’s highest court can overturn the electoral commission’s decision, which cleared 24 other candidates on Thursday, including the other two clear leaders: governing party candidate Umaru Yar’Adua, a governor of northern Katsina state; and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader.
If held successfully, the April polls would set up the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in Nigeria’s history since independence from Britain in 1960. Previous electoral transitions have been interrupted by annulments or military coups.
The back-and-forth between the ruling party and Atiku’s campaign has raised fears in Nigeria that a violent crisis could erupt, leading to an extension or cancellation of the polls. More than 10,000 people have died in strife since the end of military rule uncorked long-simmering resentments in a country with 250 ethnic groups.
With 140 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most-populous nation and its largest oil producer. Many in West Africa fear massive chaos in Nigeria could send refugees streaming across the region, undermining years of hard-won peace and increased stability in the region.
Obasanjo’s 1999 election alongside Abubakar ended years of brutal military rule. Obasanjo, a one-time military leader who handed over to a civilian government himself in the 1970s, won re-election in 2003 polls that the opposition called rigged.