Nigeria Needs a Fresh, Saint and Innocent President in 2023

Nigeria Needs a Fresh, Saint and Innocent President in 2023.

By: Bello Shehu Maude

AREWA AGENDA – The official assent to the Electoral Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari delayed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce the schedule of the 2023 General Elections as enshrined in Section 28 (1) of the Electoral Bill 2022; INEC is required to issue a notice of election not later than 360 days before the day of an election. 

President Muhammadu Buhari signed the long awaited Electoral Bill on the 25th February, 2022 which paved way to an extraordinary meeting for INEC to rearrange the 2023 General Elections Timetable.

Prior to the assent, a number of politicians declared their intention to vie for the ticket of Presidency under different Political Platforms. Not only zealous Presidential eye sighted politicians made moves but also ambitious Gubernatorial, Senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants started their permutations in the early dawn of 2022. They also strategize day and night to test their capability and capacity to seek for the support of party members and the general public in intra party primary elections.

However, the country is bedeviled with insecurity, economic stagnation, periodic fuel scarcity, sabotage and political turmoil caused by rivalry in various political parties of the country. It can be noted that majority of political parties set aside the humanitarian and national interest while intra party conflicts geared by power seekers are yet to be resolved.

In 2023, Nigeria is expected to have on record the 5th Elected Democratic President since return of Democracy in 1999 with lack of continuity on policy missions. Hence making the country stagnant in its economic plan with a lot of human security challenges holding the country back and the leadership needs to do the needful in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals projected at 2030.

The Political System of the country remained conservative with the same group of individuals and their cronies governing the country from dictatorial regimes to civilian administrations. Only Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was a new leaf in the political system.

The importance of the 2023 General Elections to the development of our nascent democracy cannot be underproductive as majority of the popular ambitious Presidential aspirants seem to be a replica of those that have stagnated the system since 1999. Among them were Politically Exposed Personalities alleged to be experts in money laundering and corrupt practices; enriching themselves at the expense of the country’s economy, false declaration of assets, certificates perjury, misuse of public funds and incapacitated economic power to pay workers’ salary and falsification of date of birth. Perhaps, it is the reason why former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on his 85 years birthday, asserted that, many aspirants ought to be in jail if EFCC and ICPC were to perform efficiently.  

The fight against corruption and insecurity brought the incumbent administration into power. Nevertheless, little or nothing has been done to fulfill the promises of making the duo history in the country. The corruption crusader built an empire with corrupt politicians in a political kangaroo arrangement of merger with beneficiaries cross-carpeting from the opposition to the ruling party in order to meet up with the requirements of immunity as the OMBUDSMAN created to deal with corruption practices later became the watchdog and puppet of the ruling party. We must commend the newly raised bill by National Assembly that restricts political party decamping after election. 

If care is not taken, the 2023 presidential race would be the avenue of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) with history of alleged or proved cases of breach of trust in the country’s economy as the most influential race riders were highlighted by some national dailies, official EFCC websites and International Investigative Reports on corruption and money laundering.

For example, the self-acclaimed Opposition ‘Ticket Winner’ in connivance with his wife, reflected in the US Senate Sub-Committee Investigation report with a history of money laundering to the tune of $40 million through wire transfers sent by offshore corporation to US Bank Accounts. A case that led the former vice president to be banned from entering the United States of America by virtue of 2004 Presidential Proclamation 7750 which ban entry into the United States for current and former corrupt foreign officials, especially those whose corruption has a nexus in the United States.

Later, in a manipulative way to make Nigerians endorse and believe in his aspirations in 2018, he was reported by American based journalist, Judd Legum to have spent millions of Dollars to hire a US based lobbyist to seek for a temporary suspension of the travel ban. Recently, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network exposed him and his wife in a trillion Dollar global corruption as reported by the International consortium of Investigative Journalism. 

Another questionable character among the bidders of the presidential seat is the former Governor of a State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), where he was accused of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering in respect of Lagos State Internally Generated Revenue consulting firm. He was also reported to be accused of falsifying data since 1999 when he contested and won the gubernatorial seat in his state. He is considered to be at his ‘football age’ by many Nigerians.

I would like to make a strong call for my dear compatriots to see the viability of the remaining bidders and judge them accordingly based on the position they held while serving the country or their particular states. Some among them hold the positions changing the narratives of the country’s economy via Economic Sustainability Committee. Yet, we are bedeviled with inflation and high poverty rate while some were out of jail in recent times due to their skillful manouvers and compromise with the movers and shakers of the country’s socio-economic and political moves of the federation.

There is need for Nigerians to fact check the track records and make a thorough investigation on the genuinely of developmental contributions and integrity of the aspirants for 2023 general election. It is also vital for Nigerians to capitalize on Live Presidential Debates upon which the aspirants would be quizzed for their security as well as economic plans for the dividends of democracy in the entire federation.

In this era, the vote buying should be discouraged in cash or kind by the masses and make a popular case by exposing the bad eggs trying to blackmail citizens’ rights to vote without psychological interference.

Lastly, I would like to urge the electorates to grab and secure their Permanent Voters Card as a weapon against our common enemy and the snatchers of our happiness whom they directly or indirectly jeopardize and sabotage the human and developmental arrangement of Nigeria as a jurisdiction in global village.

Bello Shehu Maude is Advocate of Good Governance, Public Policy Analyst and SDGs Ambassador. He writes from Kano, can be reach through [email protected] 

Arewa Agenda is a Publication of Young writers/journalist from Northern Nigeria towards Peaceful Coexistence and National Development through positive narratives.