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By Ifeanyichukwu Ibekwe
The first set of the 2023 general election in Nigeria has been scheduled to take place on February 25, 2023, and the people of Nigeria are expected to come out en masse to cast their votes for their respective candidates of choice. On this day, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), who has been in office since 2015. Members of the bicameral National Assembly, the Senate (109 members) and House of Representatives (360 members), are also expected to be elected the same day. Subsequently, the second set of the elections, this time for state governors and members of the state houses of assembly, will take place on March 11, 2023. While the state governors’ election will happen in 28 of the 36 states in Nigeria, the other eight have either just recently taken place or will take place in a near future date, 993 state assembly seats are to be filled.
Many believe that the 2023 elections in Nigeria are very critical for the survival of the country as one whole entity given the prevailing economic, security and socio-political challenges bedevilling the country at this point in time. There appears to be a consensus that there is a massive deterioration in the core values that hold the country together especially since the coming into power of the present administration in 2015. Moreover, several macro-economic indices show that the country is precariously hopping at the brink of tipping over into catastrophe and possible un-governability and disintegration. Nigerians have become evidently poorer today than they were eight years ago.
Insecurity of life and property is probably the most grievous threat to survivability in the country today. It is reported that about 10,000 people lost their lives to internecine conflicts of various dimensions and in various regions of the country last year. In the North-East, the Islamic State West Africa Province and Boko Haram terrorists make life unbearable for the inhabitants of the region. In the North-West, heavily armed and well-organized criminals and bandits kill, maim, rape and kidnap citizens for ransom. The separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) holds sway in the South-East. However, and by far, for regular Nigerians, the greatest nightmare in insecurity is the monstrous growth of kidnappings for ransom, which target everyone from commuters to schoolchildren and even trains.
On the economic front, the country has done abysmally poorly: the rates of inflation and unemployment as at December 2022 are 21% and 33 %, respectively. The National Bureau of Statistics estimates that 62.9% of Nigerians – nearly 133 million – are multi-dimensionally poor. This means that this large number of people suffer deprivation in more than one dimension: income, education, water, clean cooking fuels, healthcare, etc. The prices of food items have sky-rocketed beyond the reach of average Nigerians. For example, a bag of rice, which sold for N8,000 in 2015, now sells for about N40,000, a litre of premium motor spirit (petrol) now sells for about N500, up from N187; automotive gas oil (diesel), N800 per litre now, up from less than N200 in 2015. This dismal reality is worsened by the country’s inept and corrupt leadership. Corruption has become deep-rooted, hydra-headed and appears insurmountable. There are bare-faced and outright stealing and thefts, with dogged impunity, of government funds and property especially by those under whose care such funds/property are kept. Crude oil is stolen on a large scale and the security agents and officers of the petroleum industry turn a blind eye to this nefarious activity. Socio-politically, Nigerians are more divided now than ever. The fault lines have become sharper and more pronounced than before – the country is bifurcated along religious, ethnic and regional lines with corresponding stereotypes.
It is against this background that the 2023 elections in Nigeria are taking place. It is either that Nigerians vote to continue with the status quo as engendered by the two dominant political parties that have alternated power since 1999 – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Or, go for a fresh breath of air by voting Labour Party or the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), led by Mr. Peter Obi and Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, respectively, or any of the other political parties, for that matter. The questions then become: Can these elections save Nigeria from total collapse? Would the results of the elections be able to begin a process of recovery, regeneration and resuscitation of the country’s economy and national values? It does appear that, without an urgent change of direction, the country will soon run out of viable options for survival. Nigerians must vote right to reclaim their country and save it from the precipice where it is presently hanging, gasping for a breath of fresh air.
