In yesterday’s primaries, Senator John McCain surged ahead of his Republican rivals by winning nine states, including three of the most populous -- California, New York and Illinois. Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each scored key victories. Clinton won eight states, including California and New York, the state she represents in the Senate. Obama was victorious in 13 states, most notably Georgia and his home state of Illinois.
The primaries are generating huge interest in Africa. In Nigeria, people stayed awake all night to watch the returns.
Chuks Osuji is the director of the consulting firm Opinion Research and Communications in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. He told VOA English to Africa reporter Chinedu Offor that people were glued to their television sets in anticipation of the results.
“Almost everybody here in Nigeria is following the primaries, particularly the Super Tuesday primaries. And I in particular have been very excited about it and more so that an African American is contesting and at the same time the wife of the former president of the United States, who was very popular among Africans.”
Osuji says the Republican Party candidates do not attract as much interest because of their perceived unwillingness to assist the region. ”Absolutely no, I do not want to be pretentious about it. Generally speaking, majority of African and Nigerian electorates are true Democrats and that is not to say that they do not like Republicans; they do but majority leans Democratic.”