PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES PLACED ON THE SCALE: THE NIGERIA IN 2023 AND BEYOND Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI

Each election year brings us opportunity to make choices. From the wards where we have our councilors to the Local Government where we have our Local Government Chairmen and State legislators, to the Federal Constituency which gives us our House of Representatives members, the Senatorial District from where our Senators emerge, the states the produce the Governors and the federation where we have our president elected. Though our opportunities are shaped by the political parties which present us the available alternatives, we have options from which to exert our choices.

Again in 2023, Nigeria is going to have a general election to especially elect the President of Nigeria. Front line candidates have emerged from the various political parties and we have the duty to make our choices from among them. What we all should be doing now is trying to know them, assess them, evaluate them and choose accordingly by voting for the best candidate.

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) have presented us with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as their presidential candidate. The All Progressives Congress (APC) have also brought us Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu as their presidential flag bearer. The New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) have Sen. Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso as their presidential candidate. Labour Party (LP) on their own have brought us Mr. Peter Obi as their standard bearer for the 2023 Presidential Election. It is therefore incumbent on us to get to them in whichever way we can to know them and to measure them with our dream of Nigeria.

In the view of a few citizens of Nigeria, we want a great and progressive country. We want Nigeria to be a developed country at par with any great country in the world today. How do we attain this? Who can lead Nigeria today and help us achieve this lofty dream of making Nigeria a great country. This should be our quest going into 2023. This necessitates our assessment of the candidates mentioned above to enable us make informed decisions about who becomes the president of Nigeria in 2023.

ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR 

Former Vice President of Nigeria in 1999 - 2007 has been a great leader. He has made great contributions to Nigeria since the days of the SDP and NRC. He was part of the team that worked hard for the return to democracy in 1999 especially. His political credentials are rich. But what does he have for Nigeria and Nigerians in 2023?

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is over 70 years and is fast aging. He does not have the requisite strength and vigour that a president of Nigeria in 2023 should have considering the spate of insecurities in the country and he is sympathetic to some ills that he may not have the moral strength to wage wars against them. He has some baggage of corruption against his personality and is not detached from his businesses enough to be objective. The former president also has a moral issue as to why he will want the presidency to return or remain in the North after the 8 years run of President Muhammadu Buhari who comes also from the northern part of Nigeria. His stand for the Presidential Election in 2023 tends to make him a desperate man who lacks honour in his own words and disregards conventions that have favoured him in the past. 

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is a leader worthy of retirement and extending statesman values and advices to the incoming president in 2023. He talks of unifying Nigeria which is good but he does not seem to know how to go about it. His promises are vague and intangible to discernment. Voting him in as the president of Nigeria in 2023 will be a great gamble.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is aged and lacks the required strength and vigour. He dangles moral problems from corruption to being trustworthy. He is a man known for excessive wish to acquire. His promises are not touching down fine and may turn a gimmick. He is best as a statesman and an advisor to the new generation of Nigerian leadership.

SEN. BOLA AHMED TINUBU

One could say that Asiwaju is the greatest politician from the Yoruba land after Awolowo. Though it arguable from many that both Moshood Kashim Oluwole Abiola (MKO) and former President Olusegun Matthew Aremu Obasanjo (OBJ) are greater than Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), it does not defeat the fact that he is one of the greatest leaders of the Yoruba land today and in history.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu is acclaimed the leader of new Lagos. Since 1999 when he won as the Governor of Lagos State, he has maintained his political leadership of Lagos State and has shown such political dexterity that is somewhere near being a maverick or even a political magician of anyone chooses such accolade. He has built great leaders from the The Yoruba land across the 6 States of the South-West of Nigeria.

Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu however has huge corruption cases on his personality raging from perjury impinging on his educational certifications to his being carried in the news as having been indicted as a drug baron. The age of BAT has remained a questionable issue his health does not seem top for the leadership of the country. He has also been accused of holding down and tight on the finances of Lagos State and other issues as such. On moral issues, many say that he is a desperate man who wants power by all means possible. Other critics have said that he has started with destructively divisive introductions that can put Nigeria in damaging existence. Prominent among this view is his choice of Vice Presidential Candidate. Opinions are that the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Tinubu-Shettima in 2023 spells too wrong for the country. Also, it is said that his Vice Presidential Candidate, Sen. Kashim Shettima is suspected as a sponsor of the dreaded terrorist organisation in Nigeria called the Boko Haram. They say that the culprit of the popular Christmas Day bombing was found in his house and no explanation has been given to that since then. Others are also arguing that Bola Tinubu is dishonest in trying to become the President of Nigeria in 2023 after President Obasanjo's 8 years and Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo's 8 years as well, all from the South-West when the South-East is supposed to have the turn upon the running conventional practice of rotational presidency and Federal Character.

Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu has along his campaigns failed to tell all Nigerians what he wants to do as the president of Nigeria in 2023. He has only danced around the pont and has consistently presented such manifesto that sounds like a man talking to his kids or a master addressing his slaves. Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu has only made remarks that only talks about feeding the Nigerian people and especially the youths in some utter paternalistic mien. His chats to becoming the president of Nigeria are not convincing for any reasonable decision to accept or vote him by well appreciable points except those who run on sentiments. Sentiments such as tribe or ethnicity, religion and/or servitude of recompense for favour done elsewhere.

Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu carries heavy loads of damaging controversies, he hangs baggages of corruption and sundry outlawful bands. His health is a big question and he does not seems to care about that pertinent matter owing to his desperation. He has never given any thoughtful reason why he wants to be the president of Nigeria in 2023 except offering laughable sounds of a farmer who wants to feed his cattle, sheep, goats or chicks. He does not also have the necessary credentials which are out of dispute for the position of the president of Nigeria. Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is so masterful to be a servant president which Nigeria deserves in dire form in 2023.

SEN. RABIU MUSA KWANKWASO

A former Governor of Kano State and a great political leader from the North-Western Nigeria. He is a crowd puller and the leader of the Kwankwasiya movement. He has been prominent in the national politics since he was a Governor of Kano.

Sen. Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso has suffered some defeat in kano State after he left office as the Governor of Kano State especially as orchestrated by his own former Chief of Staff and successor. He has been in some unkind relationship with the governor of his state since he left office and this does not portray him as a good follower which makes great leaders. It is a valid testament that those who cannot follow well, cannot lead well. This puts a high question on the aspiration of Kwankwaso to become the President of Nigeria in 2023. While many say he is an arrogant leader, others say he is a religious fundamentalist. The idea of Kwankwaso being a religious fanatic is made worse by his presentation as a tribal bigot. This has also been expressed by him when he made remarks on national television about the Northern Nigeria against the Eastern Nigeria. Such irrepressible declaration is unworthy of someone who should be the president of Nigeria. Kwankwaso has been caught in many other issues that question his national belief and temperament rich and mature enough to lead Nigeria.

Sen. Rabui Musa Kwankwaso has failed to convince Nigerians so far with a manifesto deserving his aspiration. He hangs on ethnic capital, religious emblematic and national divisive attrition as factors of his greatness. These are incongruent with desirable qualities of Nigerian president in 2023. The tall arrogance worn by Sen. Kwankwaso is a dangerous one that will doom Nigeria if allowed to fester.

Sen. Rabui Musa Kwankwaso does not represent the strongly wanted unity of Nigeria. He is a religious extremist and ethnic jingoist. He wears heavy chains of arrogance and character incompetence and may not be the best for Nigeria as a president in 2023.

MR. PETER OBI

Mr. Peter Obi is a former Governor of Anambra State. He rose into prominence as a captain of industries and business mogul. He is a former banker who grew up into sitting on the board of banks that eventually turned into multinationals. Mr. Peter Obi eventually became Chairman of an international Bank in his early 30s. He is an economic strategist who turned a political giant. Mr. Peter Obi has been said to have laid the foundation of the consistent political leadership growth of Anambra State. He paid up the entire debt of Anambra State, paid backlogs of civil servants salaries and the dues of pensioners that spanned over 40 months. He paid all contractors and did not owe any. He never borrowed any kobo from any financial institution or anybody but left savings and reserves for the state government after him. Mr. Peter Obi revamped the educational status of Anambra State and put the state on reckoning position at the national level. 

Mr. Peter Obi has been criticised as having no political structure and having come from a politically disadvantaged geopolitical zone (South-East) of Nigeria. He is said to be saying too much to the people and as a political orphan who is coming from an unpopular or mushroom political party - the Labour Party (LP). Many criticisms levelled against Mr. Peter Obi so far have remained pedestrian and weightless but he has also given clarifications to most of them, of not all. His communication to the masses of Nigeria has remained epic and relishing. 

Mr. Peter Obi has shown character in forgiveness and moderation in his campaigns. He has remained focused and never distracted in his campaigns. Mr. Peter Obi has a clear vision of the type of Nigeria he wants to build if he becomes the president of Nigeria in 2023. He touched the vital problems of Nigeria and has asserted the ways of solving them. Mr. Peter Obi has shown respect and honour and has attracted the love of the youths, his colleagues, men and women and has broken the bounds of religious dichotomy, ethnic demarcations, ideological segregation and solution ignorance.

Mr. Peter Obi has advanced young Nigerian leaders of the need to cut down on excesses and wastage in government running. He has proffered his patterns of solving Nigeria's problems of international trade, exchange rates and devaluation of Nigerian legal tender. He stands to remedy the economic woes of Nigeria by his pragmatic social, economic and political philosophy of replacing consumption with production. He has advanced solutions to our security turbulence by stating grand schemes of separating situational criminals from habitual outlaws through economic recovery, development, job and wealth creation and employment.

Mr. Peter Obi has the right age, the academic qualification, the requisite experience, the character and clarity of views to lead Nigeria as her president in 2023. This is especially so as Nigeria and Nigerians are in a hurry for the right things to be done in 2023. The security, economy, education, welfare and other sectors of Nigerian national life are currently on life support and need urgent attention and technical knowhow.

In the main therefore, if Nigeria needs a leader that is healthy, youthful, experienced, respectful, accessible, acceptable, humble, creative, unifying, educated and very attentive to details, they have such qualities in Mr. Peter Obi beyond the rest candidates. While it is obvious that all the candidates are better than the outgoing president - President Muhammadu Buhari - which implies that with any of them in power in 2023 Nigeria will be better than it is today under the current government, it is also better to go for the best. Going for the best is unavoidable and sacred for Nigeria at the moment because the task ahead on 2023 requires not just a political leader but one with tact on politics, economy and personally imbued with the necessary skills to lead from the front. Dreams will not be enough for the president of Nigeria in 2023 as the enormous job awaiting the next President of Nigeria in 2023 will need a tactical leader who will lead the assemblage of the best team to rescue Nigeria from the current locusts and cankerworm.