The 2016-2017 Nigerian General Reaction Plan: The Challenges of Modern-Day Life with the Emerging Technological and Social Complexity
In Africa’s most populous country, the last eight years have not been good for many. Nearly all of the country’s challenges, including the economy and security, have evolved into deeper crises.
Two-thirds of the population now live in poverty and almost half of young people are unemployed, with millions of job losses since outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari’s government took office in 2015. Inflation and oil production have plunged in Nigeria, pushing the value of the currency, the naira, to a new low.
Violent insecurity and terrorism, which existed in some parts of the country, have proliferated across swaths of it — reshaping everyday life in profound ways. There are continuous threats from terrorists and Islamist groups in the north and central regions of Nigeria, and from secessionist groups in the southeast. The number of kidnapping attacks around the country has soared, rising as the economy has worsened.
Bleak prospects of a young population with a median age of under 19 has led to a “japa” wave, which is an increasing number of people fleeing the country for a better life.
The Changing Faces of Nigeria: A Look at Bola Tinubu, the Most Powerful Candidate in the All Progressives Congress
There are 18 candidates and three of them are the most important. Two older figures who have dominated politics for a generation, and a young candidate who has blown the race open, are considered the front-runners.
Bola Tinubu is one of Nigeria’s most powerful politicians and is running for president of the All Progressives Congress. He is a hugely divisive figure because he’s a Muslim from the southwest.
A former accountant and senator, he’s credited by supporters for attracting major investment and turning Lagos into one of the biggest economies in Africa when he was governor of the state from 1999 to 2007.
He was blamed for keeping control of the state’s finances which he helped to build. He’s been accused of being involved in drug-related crimes. In 1992, the U.S. government accused him in a lawsuit of laundering proceeds from heroin trafficking, and he eventually reached a settlement, forfeiting $460,000. He denies doing anything wrong.
Yet he has also faced challenges. His candidacy has caused divisions in his party, which is usually between northern and southern Nigeria. This time it was expected to be a southerner. He’s also faced multiple corruption allegations in the U.S. The Senate investigators alleged in 2010 that one of his wives helped him transfer more than 40 million dollars from offshore corporations to the U.S. Some of the money was alleged to be bribes paid by German company Siemens AG, which pleaded guilty to bribery charges. Atiku has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Before the vote, several opinion polls predicted Obi would win the election. He ultimately came third but despite defeat, Obi’s 25% share of the vote is the highest third party percentage tally in Nigerian history. Key wins in states like Lagos have made Nigeria’s political map appear less set in stone, and more vulnerable to political mobilization of the kind that Obi has inspired, particularly among the young and middle class.
For the first time in Nigerian history, there could be a second vote in the election. A candidate needs to get 25% of the votes in at least 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states to win an election. All of the candidates have strong support in some regions but face an uphill task in others. There is a possibility of a second election if the race comes down to three main candidates.
There is a chance, so don’t rule out a late postponement. Both of the last elections were called off. In 2019, this was announced just hours before polls opened, with officials citing insecurity in parts of the country. In the southeast, armed groups have stepped up attacks on police, making it an even more difficult place to do your job.
The birth of a man: Bola Tinubu, the enigma that Nigerian presidential elections have been described as a failure of democracy
The results of the Nigeria’s presidential elections show that Bola Tinubu beat out two other prominent candidates. Three days later it comes, after widespread logistical failures, violence that suppressed the vote and cries of a sham from opposition parties.
He won just over 36% of the vote in one of the most tightly contested polls since the end of military rule. In his home state, he lost in a close race to the 76-year-old Abubakar, but then won by a huge margin in the rest of the country.
Tinubu is one of the most well known politicians in the country and also an enigma, being asked questions about his age, his health and his source of wealth.
He is blamed for Lagos’ many challenges, such as decrepit infrastructure, a lack of affordable housing and inequality. He had claimed to have made millions while he was an accountant at the firm, but they said he was never employed.