The constitution has not been promulgated. The candidates do not know the actual powers of the offices they are running for, nor have they had time to work out party platforms, state their positions on the issues or do grass-roots campaigning. In the long term, such concerns may fade in importance, provided the election is reasonably free and fair and the new civilian leadership measures up to the task. It will not be easy. The economy is in ruins.
Corruption is rampant.
Over the years, Nigeria has become home to money launderers, swindlers, drug traffickers and counterfeiters. And the nation's peacekeeping burden in West Africa is stretched to the limit. Nigeria has committed money and men to putting out fires in Liberia and Sierra Leone, neither of which are stable. If things go well, the election could ease the country back to a democratic path, economic recovery and continental leadership, fulfilling national aspirations that Nigerians have dreamed of since independence in 1960. It would also give the world reason to hope that Africa, despite its enormous problems, can pull itself out of the kinds of crises that are plaguing the continent.