Nigeria nightmare?

Africa | Intimidation, corruption, and religious divisions challenge hopes for peaceful change | Priya Abraham

Lagos, Nigeria's old capital and an important port city, is bustling, crowded, and messy. Running water and electricity supplies are erratic, and many rely on their own generators. Traffic clogs streets. Such problems have plagued residents for years, and as the country's April 21 presidential election approached, Nigerians wondered why so little has improved decades after independence.

If Nigeria is able to move smoothly from one elected civilian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to another, it will be a first-time achievement for the West African giant. But that is a stray hope in a nation inured to military rule by palace coup.

With 130 million people, Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and one of the continent's most powerful. The country derives 90 percent of its export earnings from coveted oil drilled in the south's Niger River Delta, where local militants vie to control the wealth. Nigeria is the United States' fifth-largest oil supplier.