Hope, Fear As Atiku, Tinubu, Obi, Others Battle For Presidency

After eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, which ends on May 29, 2023, Nigerians would today (Saturday) queue to elect another president.

It’s been a long wait. The 2015 electorates did not waste time calling for the president to be voted out in 2019 following concomitant failures which manifested as soon he took over from Goodluck Jonathan.

From unguided utterances to delays in forming his cabinet, Buhari’s administration ran into troubled waters immediately.

And there have been tales of woes and anguish from his All Progressives Congress, APC-led government.

The D-Day many Nigerians have longed for has come. Would they stick to the APC, whose candidate, Bola Tinubu, tried all through the electioneering to dissociate himself from the Buhari administration?

Or would Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, be three times lucky, even though he was Vice President between 1999 and 2007?

Described by his opponents as a serial loser, would he put that voodoo behind him?

Or perhaps, would a man described as a green horn, who rallied the youth and social media crowd to his side, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, emerge triumphant one time in asking?

Yet, described as a spoiler, would Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, cause the greatest political upset by defeating the leading contenders?

In all, 18 candidates threw their hats into the ring.

There are also 1,101 candidates vying for 109 senatorial seats, and 3,122 candidates for the House of Representatives seats.

Each electorate is expected to cast his vote three times – one for the president, and one each for the upper and lower houses of the National Assembly.

In all, there are 4,223 candidates contesting for 469 legislative positions.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, “In terms of gender distribution, 3,875 candidates are male, made up of 35 for presidential and vice-presidential; 1,008 for Senate and 2,832 for House of Representatives.

“Similarly, 381 females comprising one for presidential, 92 for Senate, and 288 for House of Representatives are contesting. There are also 11 persons with disabilities in the race.”

A breakdown of the occupational votes showed that students lead with 26 million of registered voters while 15 million farmers and 13 million housewives are second and third respectively according to statistics released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Also in the fourth position are business people who are 12 million.

Traders are eight million and other occupations are seven million.

Similarly, Civil servants and artisans make up five million each, while public servants are two million.

These bring the total number of registered voters to 93 million.

Lagos has the highest number of registered voters with 6,214,970 while Kano has 5,594,193; Kaduna, 4,164,473; Katsina, 3,459,945; and Rivers, 3,285,785.

Ekiti came last with the lowest number of registered voters, and also with the lowest number of PVCs collected – 958,052.

Lagos leads again with the number of PVC collected.

Northwest still leads other regions on registered voters with 21,445,000 while the South-West came second with 15,536,213.

The North-Central has 14,603,621 registered voters while the South-South came fourth with 13,284,920 registered voters.

Also, the North-East has 11,937,769;l registered voters while the South-East came last with 10,401,484 registered voters for Saturday’s election.

For Tinubu, it’s either now or never. He is fighting to be elected president for the first time. And with his official age put as 70, he may not have much time left in a country where the youth are increasingly calling for a young president.

The same goes for Atiku, who after getting so close in 2019, when he flew the same ticket with the now Labour Party candidate, this appears to be the last dance.

He is officially 76 years and vowed in 2019 to serve for only one term if he wins. He has remained coy this time.

Perhaps the only leading candidate with a chance for another shot is Obi. He’s officially 61.

He has campaigned for regeneration, creating hope and urging the youth to “take back their country.”

Also in the presidential race Kola Abiola, People’s Redemption Party; Omoyele Sowore, Africa Action Congress; Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party; Dumebi Kachikwu of the African Democratic Congress; and Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Young Progressive Party.

Prof Christopher Imumulen, Accord Party; Prof Peter Umeadi, All Progressives Grand Alliance; and Yusuf Mamman Dan Talle, Allied Peoples Movement; and Hamza Al-Mustapha of the Action Alliance are also presidential candidates.

The rest are Nnnadi Osita, Action Peoples Party; Oluwafemi Adenuga, Boot Party; Osakwe Felix Johnson, National Rescue Movement; Sani Yusuf, Action Democratic Party; and Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu, Zenith Labour Party.

One of these 18 candidates would emerge president, and would eventually hold the fate of the country in his hand.

There has been hope and fear, joy and trepidation, depending on who each person supports.

All the candidates, not least the three leading candidates, campaigned on the dominant issues plaguing the country.

They all promised to tackle insecurity, poor economy, unemployment, energy crises, poor infrastructure and education crises but with different approaches.

After a grueling and longest campaign ever, the candidates have had their say, the electorates would now decide whose promises resonated with them and should be a Commander-in-Chief for at least the next four years.