Nigeria's Election.

On Saturday (28/3/15) Nigerians will go to the polls in a General Election that has been delayed for six weeks due to the conflict with Boko Haram in the north of the country.

Initially the All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed that incumbent People's Democratic Party (PDP) were using Boko Haram to steal the election because the conflict would prevent ADP voters in the north from participating. Then when the election was delayed the ADP again claimed that this was another ploy to keep the PDP in power. Personally I don't think the election should have been held at all until the threat from Boko Haram has been properly dealt with. However there has been immense international pressure - particularly from the US - for the election to go ahead.

Despite my concerns that it is probably not the best time for an election to be held I have absolutely no problem endorsing the PDP incumbent Goodluck Jonathan for a second term as President.

Since it's independence in 1960 Nigeria has always been a complex country. Being the 10th largest oil producer in the World and with extensive reserves of other natural resources such coal, gold and bauxite which is used to make aluminium Nigeria should be one of the World's largest economies. However it has always struggled to benefit from its wealth against a long history of military coups and civil wars including the big 1967-1970 civil war between the predominately Muslim north and the predominately Christian south. Then following the end of a long period of military rule there was the so-called oil wars in the Niger Delta region. Nowadays there is the Islamist threat of Boko Haram.

During his first term in office President Jonathan has struck me as a man who very much understands the challenges that face Nigeria and as leader who is more then capable of meeting those challenges. For example in early 2013 Jonathan resisted intense international pressure to join an multi-African coalition to the defeat the Islamists in Mali while the US were putting together their big Rihanna operation. Due to Nigeria's refusal to participate what would have been a very complicated operation in Mali instead turned into a swift and decisive defeat for the Islamists at the hands of France and Chad.

I will agree that Jonathan's handling of the threat from Boko Haram who seem to have emerged from the conflict has not been excellent. However you have to remember that over the last 15 years the Nigerian military has been run-down by successive governments in order to prevent it from staging further coups. That is not the sort of problem that can be solved overnight. Also it's worth pointing out that the international community led by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) hasn't been in any particular rush to see Boko Haram defeated either.

Jonathan's main success though has come in the area of economics and development. In my work on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) I frequently find myself pointing to Nigeria as an example of a nation that could benefit hugely from improving the way it uses fossil fuels and generates electricity.

Goodluck Jonathan has already been far ahead of me on this point. For example in 2013 he unveiled a USD4million plan to clean up areas that have been damaged by lead pollution from the oil industry. His main success though has been his 2011 efforts to remove subsidies on the fuel many Nigerians use to power generators to produce electricity. Not only is this a hugely polluting way of producing electricity it is also massively expensive.

Therefore it would be much better for Nigeria to use the money it spends on the fuel subsidy to invest in coal or even renewable power plants. Not only would this reduce pollution it would help provide Nigeria with the reliable source of electricity it needs to develop other industries and bring down the cost of electricity for all Nigerians from around USD0.4 per hour to around USD0.05 per hour.

Nigeria's leadership in this area has been so effective that most developing nations in the UNFCCC process are now simply copying the idea. Many of the Caribbean states for example are pressuring the US to pass laws to stop their oil companies giving out generators for free.

Nigeria itself has been rewarded for Jonathan's economic reforms by surpassing South Africa as Africa's largest economy.

I think the best endorsement for Goodluck Jonathan though is the amount of time, money and effort that foreign nations have spent trying to get rid of him by supporting groups such as Boko Haram, the Bring Back Our Girls campaign and the Occupy Nigeria protests against the scrapping of the fuel subsidy.

16:05 on 27/3/15 (UK date).