Every four years Nigerians go to the poll to vote for president, governors and members of National Assembly comprising Senate and House of Representatives. This is a constitutional order in which Nigerians vote to express their wishes in atmosphere of elections adjudged not to be free and fair.
In 2023 there will be another round of elections in which Nigerians will go to the poll to vote for a president, state governors and members of the National Assembly. The tenure of the incumbent President will come to end on May 29, 2023 in which a new president will be sworn in and at state level new governors will be sworn in to replace those who served two tenures or those who would not be re-elected for second term.
President Muhammadu Buhari became president after defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 general election and was re-elected in the 2019 general election whose tenure would expire on May 29, 2023.
Of the two political parties the ruling All Progressives’ Congress (APC) recently responded to claims that the President was going to extend his tenure. The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) believes that the President was plotting to stay in office for another term in which he would be a candidate in the elections believing this is so.
But the constitution spells out two terms for an executive President who is Chief Executive of the State and Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces.
The APC had reason to refute the claim of third term agenda by the president when the PDP expressed fears that there was a plan by the president to continue in office beyond 2023.
“Unlike the opposition we are a disciplined party. PDP is just being haunted by its past. You will recall the inglorious third term agenda while PDP was in power. So it is easy to accuse APC now”, the Secretary of Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party said in a statement.
Senator John Akpanudoehede reassured that there was no plan by President Buhari to continue beyond May 29, 2023.
“After our congresses and the national convention we will shock them by bringing a consensus and agreeable candidate that will fly the flag of the party come 2023. APC has no third term agenda like the PDP”, he said in a country where there are strong political interests among political parties especially the two dominant ones.
The secretary of the caretaker and extraordinary convention planning committee of the party had said what they were doing was to stabilize the party and not allow individual ambitions to derail the administration of the president who came into office with a pledge to fight insecurity and corruption in the public sector.
Back in the 2000s there was an alleged plot by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo to continue in office beyond the constitutionally mandated two terms and created division among political stakeholders and members of the two legislative Chambers.
Lawmakers were allegedly bribed to back the president’s alleged third term bid but the plan failed to materialize and President Umaru Yar’Adua succeeded him in 2007 on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party.
The Peoples Democratic Party made the allegation of the third term bid after remarks by the Presidential aide on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in which he said that President Buhari constituted a political obstacle the opposition would not dismantle in the 2023 general election as he spoke in Daura, Katsina State, home state of the president in midst of the recently celebrated Muslim holiday.
“The President enjoys unshakable support not only in his hometown but also across the country and it is enough for the opposition to admit that the President matters a lot for the ruling party and Nigerians in general. Again he constitutes a political obstacle they cannot dismantle come 2023”, the presidential aide reportedly said in the president’s hometown.
He had also said the PDP and other political parties were nursing false hope of being in control of the affairs of government during the 2023 general elections.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President also said that the masses would never abandon him and the ruling party.
“I assure you that in 2023 the masses will be waiting for the President to show the way in courtesy of what he has been building for the country in terms of infrastructure and well-being of young people in the country,” he said and ignited reaction.
The main opposition party believes the comments suggest the President wants to stay in office beyond 2023.
Reacting to the comments, the Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that they were provocative and smacked of plots to derail the constitutional order in which a president should serve for two terms and leave office.
“Shehu Garba should be bold enough to announce that President Buhari will be on the ballot for another term in 2023 and watch how Nigerians will respond”, he said in a statement while alleging there were attacks on the country’s democratic institutions and Electoral Act.
Referring to the comments, the party publicity secretary said that the party and indeed Nigerians across board and across party lines would caution the president’s handlers to know such plots would be resisted by the people.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and also most populous black nation in the world with diverse political interest.
The party’s publicity secretary said that the country’s constitution was clear on the tenure for president and said no effort should be made under any guise to extend the tenure of the president.
“It is imperative for Shehu Garba to note that Nigerians have been subjected to the worst forms of hardship under the Buhari-led APC administration and will never allow anything that will keep this administration in office a day beyond May 29, 2023”, the party publicity secretary had said expressing the party’s position.
As hugely endowed as the country is leaders in Nigeria should think hard how to develop the country when they get elected and their period in office should be used to work for the progress of the country.
Although the country has huge resources especially with petroleum resources there are poor conditions of living and general unemployment.
The country was recently described as third worst governed country in the world. The Singapore-based Chandler Institute of Good Governance (CIGG) in its report for 2021 described Nigeria as third worst governed country and ranked the country low in leadership and foresight, in robust laws and policies and strong institutions and global influence and reputation among others which therefore places burden on leaders to do more to improve the well-being of Nigerians in a country of over 200,000,000.
Also recently the World Bank said that the country was facing its worst unemployment crisis in recent times saying that asylum seekers in the country grew in the last ten years from 27,557 to 408,078 while applications had also increased for refugee status in other countries.
In the report entitled Of Roads Less Travelled: Assessing the Potential for Migration to Provide Overseas Jobs for Nigeria’s Youth, the world bank said there were 2.1million people internally displaced in the country in the previous year alone while the number of international migrants from the country had grown from 446,806 in 1990 to 1,438, 331 in 2019 saying the share of international migrants in proportion to the country’s population was largely constant.
“Nigeria is facing one of the most acute jobless crises in recent times between 2014 and 2020”, the report said while adding that the country’s “working age population grew from 102 million to 122million growing at an average rate of approximately three per cent per year”.
The report said the unemployment rate rose from 6.4 per cent in 2010 to 33.3 per cent in 2020 with the situation getting worse in the 2015 and 2016 recession and worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic which led to worst recession in four decades last year, according to the financial institution.
So there’s a lot on the hands of Nigerian leaders to improve on well-being of the people of the country and the earlier this is done the better for us all to transform the country’s image.
As giant of Africa Nigeria should be seen to be worth its name and it’s the place of leaders to govern and make things better for all Nigerians.
It’s not unsual that in this country political activities and statements hot up when an election year approaches and political parties use everything in their arsenal in their bid to gain control of government and it’s not surprising the period has started in the countdown to 2023 general elections.
