Separate but inter-dependent: The four quarters of Nigeria’s campaign season, By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

The beginning of the campaign season for Nigeria’s presidential election in 1979 was dramatic. Michael Ani, then chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), ushered in the season by announcing the disqualification of two of the five presidential candidates. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the Nigerian Peoples’ Party (NPP), and Aminu Kano of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), he said, were disqualified because of irregularities in their tax returns. Both men, Ani continued, “are not fit to run the country.”