Quotes of the Day

When Nigeria chooses a President this weekend, Olusegun Obasanjo will likely win a second term, despite a lackluster first. Of the 19 other candidates, only Muhammadu Buhari, like Obasanjo an ex-military ruler, poses a real threat. But who wins may matter less than how this vote happens. Neither candidate has done much on the campaign trail to bridge the religious and regional divides that split Nigeria's 120 million people.

If anything, they've played them up. Obasanjo, a Christian southerner, has derided Buhari, a Muslim from the north, as a champion of the Islamic law now in force in several states. Buhari reportedly told Muslims not to vote for non-Muslims. (He told TIME he was "quoted out of context" and that opponents spread the story in "desperation.") The trash talk has helped to fuel political violence, which has killed 10,000 since 1999.

The tension could worsen yet. Buhari has repeatedly warned backers that "politicians carry out [vote] rigging," raising fears of a disputed result. In Nigeria, a civilian government has never successfully transferred power to another. Obasanjo said last week that a failure this time would be "a disaster of monumental proportion." That he even suggested failure as a possibility shows how far Nigeria still has to go

• JEFF CHU
• Is Nigeria's latest election is really democracy in action?