Media advisory: Nigeria's election could spur alternative political movement, professor says

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas expert on Nigerian politics is available to discuss the results of the country's presidential election.

According to international news reports, former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari has defeated incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan in Africa's largest democratic state.

Ebenezer Obadare, associate professor of sociology, has edited the e-book "Nigeria: What is to be Done?" to coincide with the election. Obadare worked as a journalist in Nigeria in the early 1990s, and his broad research interests include civil society and social change in Africa, including the use of social media to help foster alternative political spaces.

Obadare said that although the two main candidates don't present much of an alternative, the outcome of the election, which has seen federal power change hands from the incumbent to the opposition for the first time since 1999, could lay the groundwork for an alternative political norm and new political agents in the country to come to the forefront.

"When you are dealing with a country so complex and troubled, and so marinated in its own contradictions like Nigeria," Obadare said, "it is going to require more than a single election—or elections in toto for that matter—to have a shot at getting things right."

To arrange an interview with Obadare, contact George Diepenbrock at gdiepenbrock@ku.edu or 785-864-8853.