Citizen is a publication 鈥� unlike any other 鈥� that aims to help you easily understand politics, policy, and governance 鈥� and take action. All you need to do is follow us while we follow the news.

If you followed us during the National (February 25, 2023) and State (March 18, 2023) elections, you鈥檇 recall how expansive our coverage was and how easy it was to get the news at your doorstep. 

We achieved that on the web through general news coverage and our web series like The Nigerian Voter (a series where Nigerians shared their voting experiences), Navigating Nigeria (for residential Nigerians on how to explore Nigeria safely), Wait First (where we fact-check stories on a scale of fresh tomato to cold zobo), and our Game of Votes weekly newsletter (subscribe if you haven鈥檛).

We brought the news to you on social media via , , , , and .

We reached more than five million people during the elections and are not about to stop. Let me introduce you to our post-election phase.

What’s new

Three things:

1. Everyday Citizens

During the build-up to the elections, we asked ourselves one question: how are policies and politics affecting and changing the lives of everyday Nigerians? We introduced Everyday People (now Everyday Citizens) to find answers. 

We spoke to people often snubbed by the media except as vox-pop entertainment: , or this reality check on .

Elections are over, but governance, policies and politics never stop. That鈥檚 why we are rebranding the flagship as Everyday Citizens and giving the microphone and camera to you, the everyday Nigerian, to tell us how policies 鈥攍ike the naira swap鈥� affect you.

No matter where you are in Nigeria or the world, you鈥檒l soon be able to share your experience on Everyday Citizens. Follow us on , , and   and watch out for the series officially launching Monday, April 17, 2023, airing on Mondays at 1 p.m. and Fridays at 6 p.m, Nigerian time.

Remember to follow and turn on post notifications for 91大神 Citizen on your favourite social media platforms. .

2. Citizen History

Our history as a country is filled with events that could provide clarity on who we are and the things that happen today. Unfortunately, history is not popular in primary and secondary school education. Most of us have to rely on stories told by parents, books we read and snippets on the internet to find the truth of our past. 

That鈥檚 about to change. 

Starting Tuesday, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, we鈥檒l bring you history lessons to your fingertips. Stories like the one where we spotlighted the first Nigerian female senator or dug deep into Operation Wetie, the beef that triggered Nigeria鈥檚 first military coup. 

Every week, on Tuesdays, Citizen History will take you back in time and help you draw connections between Nigeria yesterday and Nigeria today.

Join us today on Twitter Spaces as we launch the web series:

Follow us as we follow history. 

3. Citizen 60 Seconds

As someone who grew up in front of the news, watching hourly updates from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m., I know how annoying it feels when the news just won鈥檛 end.

Citizen鈥檚 60 Seconds is our antidote to unending news coverage. In exactly 60 seconds 鈥� not more 鈥� we will tell you essential news without the time-wasting fluff.

Follow us on now so you don鈥檛 miss out when we launch on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Catch 60 seconds on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4 p.m. Nigerian time.

What’s leaving?

We did many things with The Nigerian Voter series: we interviewed an Internally Displaced Person who was keen to vote, a student at the cusp of disenfranchisement, and a Nigerian who thinks voting is a sin, among several others. 

But the flagship has played its part, and as elections wind down, it is winding down with it. 

However, we are not killing coverage of the elections. You can still read our daily coverage on the Citizen website and Game of Votes (you should ).

What’s Staying?

Our series, Navigating Nigeria, Wait First, and Abroad Life (what it means to be Nigerian, japa edition), are all staying, because they provide valuable insights to you.

We are taking the spotlight from politicians and returning them to you. We are back to asking how their policies affect you and why you should participate in governance. 

We will be telling you what steps to take when you鈥檙e a victim of revenge porn, explaining things like interim government, what new Acts mean for you, and how events like #EndSARS triggered Nigeria鈥檚 biggest japa wave in the last five years.

Follow us as we follow the news.

At 91大神 Citizen, we promise to always cover politics, policies, and governance while telling you why you should care. Let us do the heavy lifting of following the news while you follow us for the breakdown.

It is the smallest win margin of any Nigerian President since 1999. It is also the election with the lowest voter turnout 鈥� 29% of 93.4 million registered voters 鈥� since Nigeria gained independence.

While this looks like a decent result from afar, when we zoom in on the , voter intimidation, harassment, and , one begins to question the legitimacy of the results. 

Violence was so unbelievably widespread that the House of Representatives majority leader, Ado Doguwa (of the APC), was for allegedly shooting at least three people to death. In North-Central Kogi state, the sitting state governor, Yahaya Bello (of the APC), five roads leading to the district of an opponent, Natasha Akpoti, claiming he did so to avoid terror attacks.

But it does not end there.

INEC: What we ordered vs what we got

The presidential race saw three other contenders polling at least 1 million votes each: Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) got 1.4 million votes, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) got 6.1 million votes,  and Atiku Abubakar of the People鈥檚 Democratic Party (PDP) got  6.9 million votes. 

Atiku was contesting for the sixth time and was no stranger to the process. However, Obi (a third-force candidate who left the PDP months before the election) and Kwankwaso (who lost a presidential primary in 1993) were on the ballot for the first time. 

All four leading candidates and millions of Nigerians were banking on the of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise a free and fair election. 

The introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was supposed to eliminate voter fraud and assist INEC with collating accurate data directly from polling units to the . But days after the election result had been announced, the IReV portal was yet to host most of the results.

Peter Obi鈥檚 running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, the 鈥渨idespread technological problems and manipulation of results鈥� at a press conference in Abuja.

While one could write Datti off as a pained loser, many Nigerians have taken to the IReV portal to collate the numbers as they are uploaded. What is on the portal and what was announced by INEC are at variance.

Despite getting a 鈧�305 billion budgetary allocation, INEC did not conduct a convincingly free and fair election.

INEC cannot blame its failure on the want of time. The BVAS, for instance, has been tested in , , and Osun state (2022). 

Just days before the presidential election, INEC its processes again on February 4 across 436 polling units, assuring Nigerians it was ready. Why, then, did BVAS and IReV malfunction mar the electoral process on February 25, 2023? 

The INEC Chair, Mahmood Yakubu, has questions to answer. And the answers might be in court.

Legal steps

and have held press conferences addressing their supporters, opponents, and INEC, ending with a promise to take .

Obi is notorious for post-election litigation, while Abubakar has never won any election petition, although he has a string of successes in other cases, former president Olusegun Obasanjo. 

However, one factor stands against both men: no Nigerian President has been sacked from office after INEC declared the winner. And the president-elect seems to be counting on this, as he starts his tour to with loyalists.

The Supreme Court鈥檚 recent string of cases, which make it seem like it sways in the direction of the ruling party, is also a source of concern. The current Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma (of APC), sits in office after coming fourth at the polls due to a Supreme court decision which his opponent Emeka Ihedioha (of PDP).

In a way that Nigerians have not had to do before, there is great attention and expectation that the Supreme court will either validate Tinubu鈥檚 victory or reach a conclusion that may lead to recounting an outright announcement of another candidate, or a redo of the voting process.

The polls might have closed, but the presidential election process is still open.

With the gubernatorial election days away on March 11, eyes must fall back on INEC. This is an opportunity for INEC to initiate a redemption. Nigerians (locally and abroad) and the international community are all paying attention. 

INEC has this lifeline left to encourage voter participation. Will it take it?

Everyday guilt pleasures like cookies have become impossible to afford, as necessities like menstrual pads are now becoming out of reach. 

When you ask who should be held responsible for the financial violence, you鈥檒l get conflicting answers like , Godwin 鈥楳effy鈥� Emefiele, , or even the everyday Nigerians who have .

Why is petrol so expensive and why can鈥檛 we get some? You will have to ask petrol marketers, filling station owners, or perhaps, Rexxie.

The Nigerian presidency鈥檚 tone-deaf approach to handling this crisis shows that we are on our own. Nobody wants to be responsible for Nigeria鈥檚 woes, not even President Bubu, who doubles as our petroleum minister.

To top it all, all this ba la blu hullabaloo is happening just weeks before Nigeria鈥檚 election.

Election era

Under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, we鈥檝e been in our #EndSARS era, , and eight-month ASUU strike era, and it鈥檚 time for our .

Despite young Nigerians making up to 39% of registered voters, the process for collecting their Permanent Voter鈥檚 Card has been so scandalous that some people can鈥檛 find theirs at INEC offices, even though the portal says it is ready. 

Many who want to collect theirs are stuck in school and are begging the Nigerian Universities Commission and other bodies to free them for their PVC collection and eventually to vote. Now that the PVC collection era has passed, they can only hope that those who have gotten their PVCs are not forced to be in school, away from their polling units, on election day.

Why is it difficult for schools to close for one week to allow young voters to participate in the voting process? Are they not the ones that will spend eight years in school if a bad government is elected?

Likeeee????

Anybody can collect 

Nigeria鈥檚 bad governance and anyhow behaviour are like sand; they will touch everybody. What this election era is showing us is that nobody is safe and anybody can collect. 

Politicians like Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna State gov), (fmr Speaker House of Reps), and are now entering the to tell us that some party members are plotting against their party鈥檚 flagbearer not to win the election. It鈥檚 the acting as if it鈥檚 not their party that has been clowning Nigeria for the past eight years for me.

Not (current speaker HoR), whose escort a newspaper vendor coming out to tell us who to vote for because Nigeria is currently a lawless state. But Mr Lawmaker鈥檚 security is shooting shot with innocent lives.

Please rest

As if it鈥檚 not all of us suffering in this pandemic, some people are now trying to blame gen z for who have added nothing to them.

When we live in a nation where you are deprived of basic education on your country鈥檚 history, where our principles are guided by who you know and less by what you know, it becomes difficult to blame people for being indifferent.

The internet, however, provides a space for people to catch up and learn. It鈥檚 why you should follow to become a baller on Nigerian politics. You should also , to get updates on the 2023 elections. But we can鈥檛 fix decades of problems in one week鈥檚 editorial.

We continue to implore young Nigerians to vote in the coming elections and decide who they trust enough to lead them. But stop acting like they are the reason you can鈥檛 buy petrol in your car. 

The government has to take responsibility for its failure, and where it can鈥檛, the citizens step in by voting to fix it, as we will do on February 25, 2023, and March 11, 2023.

This is a 91大神 Citizen Editorial. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without proper attribution to 91大神 Citizen.