THE NEW NIGERIA!!

I woke up this morning with the echoing statement of Nigeria’s former president in 2015 – Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, “…my second term ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian”. He thereafter conceded by making the historic ‘phone call’ to his challenger – General Muhammadu Buhari even before the final announcement of the result by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).  ‘I promised the country free and fair elections’, President Jonathan said in a concession speech that came out early morning of the next day after the elections. ‘As I’ve always affirmed, nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian – the unity, stability and progress of our dear country is more important than anything else’, Jonathan said. This statement gave me the hope of a new dawn, spurred me to go out and exercise my civic responsibility of voting for the new leaders to direct the affairs of the nation for the next tenure.

Today is Saturday, the 25^th of February and is the Nigeria’s 2023 presidential Election Day; the president having served his constitutionally mandated of two tenures of each four years, will not be participating in this 2023 election. He will be existing and leaving the position of the Presidency to be jostled by eighteen candidates who are vying to take over the mantle of leadership from the outgoing President Muhammad Buhari on 29^th May. The campaigns closed on Thursday and over 87 million registered voters are now waiting for the Saturday to pick from among the 18 candidates whose electoral promises they found to be more persuasive and convincing in the last few months. But four of them really stand out -these include Mr. Bola Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC) – former governor of Lagos State; Mr. Atiku Abubakar of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – former vice president; Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) – former governor of Anambra State and Mr. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) – former governor of Kano state.

It will be good to note that Nigeria is the most important country in the subregion – It is the most populated country in the continent with over 200 million people. It is the largest oil-producing country in the continent as well as the largest economy in Africa. This means that what happens to Nigeria matters a lot to the continent.

However, there has been several proliferation of surveys and opinion polls that have come into play over that last weeks. These survey outcomes had been considered through the outlined key issues:

1. Ethnicity and Regionalism – the four key candidates in the election, regarded as the front runners in the election, come from the three dominant ethnic groups in the country: Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo.
2. Religion – Just like ethnicity and regionalism, religion has always been an important tool of mobilisation and discord in Nigeria politics.
3. Emergence of ‘viable’ third force parties – the 2015 election changed the Nigeria’s political landscape which has always been dominated by one party – the PDP. The 2015 election victory by the APC, heralded an era of a two-party dominant country. The emergence of the Labour Party and the New Nigeria People’s Party seem to have changed the electoral dynamics. Are we really going to have a ‘third force’?
4. The New Electoral Act – the 2022 Electoral Act has introduced innovations like the electronic transmission of results from the polling units and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (B-VAS). These were intended to curb rigging and give INEC the long-contested independence as the electoral umpire.
5. Insecurity – the general insecurity in Nigeria may make it difficult, if not possible to conduct credible elections in some parts of the country.
6. Vote Trading – Despite the measures to improve the transparency of the electoral system with the redesign of the naira notes (N1000, N500 and N200 notes) to curb vote trading. Money and vote buying will remain a big factor in the 2023 election.

With these surveys and above key issues, the final election result will be determined and announced by INEC after today’s election. Recall that until 2015, Nigeria’s political landscape was dominated by one political party. Are we really going to have the magic emergence of ‘third force’? Time will tell!! The big question therefore is ‘have you exercised your franchise? Have you voted for the candidate of your choice? Do you believe in a ‘New Nigeria’? Then get up and exercise your franchise of voting the leader of your choice…VOTE RIGHT!!! #EMBA28