Nigeria: What does Muhammed Buhari want?
June 1 2022 By Abiodun Giwa
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, President Muhammed Buhari, and Bola Tinubu.
Many Nigerians have been surprised about events in their country for the last eight years. They expect progress, but they see a journey backward amid kidnapping and destructive economic and social situations. They wait for the next election to hold their leaders accountable. But the procedure for the election seems to be going the way of the last eight years of significant losses under the leadership of Muhammed Buhari.
News reports reveal that President Buhari wants to pick a successor and so sure whoever he chooses will succeed him. Observers of events in the country wonder what the president relies upon to achieve his objective. They say his performance, if anything, has made reelection possibilities difficult for the ruling party.
Therefore, many Nigerians say whoever emerges as the party's presidential candidate in its June 6 primary election may not be sure of election as a president unless the election result is cooked. The problem here is that a president whose major program of action is a fight against corruption resorts to unethical ways to influence an election. Difficult to believe this can be true for observers.
President Buhari, some time ago, said that he would not name the person he wanted as his successor because he fears if he called the fellow, he might get killed. His favorite candidate is still unknown, though many people eye Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who has declared his intention to run for president's office. Osinbajo's wish to run goes against political calculations in his part of the country in the western region. His political mentor, Bola Tinubu, is also running for the same office.
The latter ensured the victory of his party and the election of the outgoing president on a larger scale based on his political calculations and support from the Western region. He was also said to have recommended Osinbajo to Buhari as a good guy to be chosen as a vice-presidential candidate, having been a commission for justice under Tinubu as a governor of Lagos State. Although Osinbajo is well-heeled as a former professor of law and a pastor of the redeemed Christian Church, many observers believe that Tinubu is more experienced.
However, the gist is that the decision by the vice president and his political benefactor is polarizing their part of the country. The resultant division may rob that part of the country from achieving the objective of producing the next president if luck goes the way of the ruling party since a rational political calculation does not favor the party because Buhari decimates the ruling party's political capital for extreme lack of performance.
And as if the unconfirmed information of the president's intention to favor his vice-president is not enough, another rumor began to circulate that the former President Jonathan Goodluck is about to be foisted on the ruling party as a consensus candidate. As the All People Congress, APC, goes into its primary elections next Monday to pick a presidential candidate, the question remains who wears the crown essentially to represent the party in the 2023 presidential election. While the uncertainty of retaining the APC as the ruling party looms large in the Nigerian political calculus.
News reports reveal that President Buhari wants to pick a successor and so sure whoever he chooses will succeed him. Observers of events in the country wonder what the president relies upon to achieve his objective. They say his performance, if anything, has made reelection possibilities difficult for the ruling party.
Therefore, many Nigerians say whoever emerges as the party's presidential candidate in its June 6 primary election may not be sure of election as a president unless the election result is cooked. The problem here is that a president whose major program of action is a fight against corruption resorts to unethical ways to influence an election. Difficult to believe this can be true for observers.
President Buhari, some time ago, said that he would not name the person he wanted as his successor because he fears if he called the fellow, he might get killed. His favorite candidate is still unknown, though many people eye Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who has declared his intention to run for president's office. Osinbajo's wish to run goes against political calculations in his part of the country in the western region. His political mentor, Bola Tinubu, is also running for the same office.
The latter ensured the victory of his party and the election of the outgoing president on a larger scale based on his political calculations and support from the Western region. He was also said to have recommended Osinbajo to Buhari as a good guy to be chosen as a vice-presidential candidate, having been a commission for justice under Tinubu as a governor of Lagos State. Although Osinbajo is well-heeled as a former professor of law and a pastor of the redeemed Christian Church, many observers believe that Tinubu is more experienced.
However, the gist is that the decision by the vice president and his political benefactor is polarizing their part of the country. The resultant division may rob that part of the country from achieving the objective of producing the next president if luck goes the way of the ruling party since a rational political calculation does not favor the party because Buhari decimates the ruling party's political capital for extreme lack of performance.
And as if the unconfirmed information of the president's intention to favor his vice-president is not enough, another rumor began to circulate that the former President Jonathan Goodluck is about to be foisted on the ruling party as a consensus candidate. As the All People Congress, APC, goes into its primary elections next Monday to pick a presidential candidate, the question remains who wears the crown essentially to represent the party in the 2023 presidential election. While the uncertainty of retaining the APC as the ruling party looms large in the Nigerian political calculus.
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