In February of next year, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect a new president and a new parliament. The country’s democracy is still relatively young. Officially occupied by the British in 1851, Nigeria was under colonial rule until as late as 1960. Military generals seized power not long after the country’s independence, and in the late 1960s, this dictatorship — which, according to British journalist Frederick Forsyth, was “aided and assisted at every stage by Oxbridge-educated mandarins” — murdered and starved millions of people during a brutal civil war. The country only returned to civilian rule at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Despite its bleak experience of oppression and violence, Nigeria also has a vibrant political scene and history that is little-known abroad. While Western news outlets mainly report its horrific outbreaks of violence, more recently, the financial press has had only glowing praise for prominent Nigerians taking up key roles in the US Treasury, the UK Department for International Trade, and the World Trade Organization. Intriguingly, there has also been echoes of social democratic, Bernie Sanders–style enthusiasm around Labour Party candidate Peter Obi. His campaign has motivated young people and raised the prospect of change in a country beset by crisis.

But other stories paint a darker picture. Promises to address police brutality in the wake of the #EndSARS protests have not been met. The country’s debt servicing is now 118 percent of its revenue, and inflation recently hit 19.6 percent. Banditry and graft are sabotaging the major industries, and a failure to pay teachers and staff has crippled the education system. Lawlessness and insurgency ravage parts of the country.