From the very start, the recent Nigerian elections, which saw Olusegun Obasanjo placing his hand-picked successor Umaru Yar' Adua into the Presidential palace, were mired in controversy. The ballot papers for the election, which were printed in South Africa, contained no counterfoils or serial numbers -- features which would have made vote riggingdifficult. In fact, only 40 million ballot papers were even printed -- this for an election where over 65 million people had registered to vote.1 To make matters worse, only 30% of these ballot papers were ever sent to Nigeria; the rest remained lying in a warehouse in Johannesburg on day of the elections.2 Of the ballot papers that were sent to Nigeria, most were rushed off to areas that were and are strongholds of Obasanjo's and Yar' Adua's ruling party, the People's Democratic Party. In contrast, areas where there was strong opposition to the government, such as the Niger Delta, did not receive enough ballot papers. On the day of the election, independent observers noted that vote rigging and fraud were rife. Yar' Adua supporters were even seen stuffing fraudulent ballot papers into ballot boxes at voter stations across the county.3 Intimidation of opposition supporters was also widespread. In fact, over 200 people, mainly members of the opposition parties, were murdered in the runup to the elections.4 This situation led most independent observers to declare the elections a farce.

The South African government, however, had a very different view of the elections. Spearheaded by Thabo Mbeki, it came out and said the elections had been free and fair. Indeed, South Africa was the first country to congratulate and offer support to the ruling party's candidate, Yar' Adua, on "winning" the elections.5 Immediately following this, he was invited to Tshwane to have a personal congratulatory meeting with Thabo Mbeki. The question is: why would the South African government fall over itself to congratulate Yar' Adua on "winning" an election that was so clearly rigged? The answer to this question lies in South Africa's policy towards Africa, in the form of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the relationship that it has with the ruling party in Nigeria, and the expansionist agenda that South African corporations and parastatals have in Nigeria.

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