The race to determine who succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari will soon rev up with the campaigns for the 2023 general elections due to commence early September. And by Saturday, 25th February 2023 ceteris paribus, the 96.2 million registered voters shall file out to the 176, 846 polling centres across the country to elect the next occupier of the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja for the next four years.
Already, a good number of the seventy-eight registered political parties have submitted the lists of candidates for all the elective positions in line with the directive of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who gave July 17th as the deadline for the submission or substitution of candidates by the parties.
Therefore, beginning from this coming September, till the final conclusions of the next general elections in 25th February 2023 neither the manifesto of the parties nor personalities of the candidates will dominate political discussions, but the ever bordering issue of good governance.
The major task before the these 96 million registered voters, many people focusmagazineonline.com spoken to said ‘ is to ensure that candidate that will deliver good governance get elected”. Nigeria, as a country “is in a dire time, and this need a well-focused leader now”, they argued further.
Octogenarian Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka puts it more succinctly, Tuesday (2nd August) while moderating a lecture, themed: ‘Good Governance or Misgovernance: The Contract called Democracy’, in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He said clearly that the country is yearning for who would deliver good governance.

Nigeria, from independence, have never been in want of good governance, as she is presently. The inauguration of the present democratic dispensation in May 29, 1999, raised much hope and aspirations of the people, but twenty-three years down the line, the nation is still wandering in slopes, potholes and gallops; still crawling to survive. The nation’s path to greatness remained as blurred as it was back in 1999, while the battle for survival has sapped the country’s almost dry of all resources.

Few weeks ago, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) a global business intelligence, published its reports for the second quarter of the year. The report said Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital city is the world’s second least liveable urban area. EIU ranked Lagos 171 out of 172 countries in the list of most liveable cities in the world for the first quarter of 2022, according to the latest 2022 Global Liveability Index.
This report rates the Nigeria’s best city, the worst in Africa as Damascus (Syria) and Tripoli (Libya) continued to anguish at the bottom of the list along with Lagos (Nigeria) as they face social unrest, terrorism, kidnapping, and religion conflict. This verdict speaks volumes of the socio-economic pains the country is passing through presently. The rating typifies how the international agencies paint the country, twenty-three years after the returns of democracy.

Lagos, the acclaimed mega city, tells the story of the South Western region of the country. The most developed region is said to be largely unliveable. The vast expanse of the Northern hemisphere is unliveable. Same with East and South South regions. Insecurity, poverty, religion distrust, mass unemployment, infrastructural deficit, dysfunctional educational system and social dislocation are all visible in the country, and all are indices of dysfunctional governance.
With the conclusion of the parties’ primary elections and shutdown of submission of candidates by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the electorates now have a clear view of the colour and identity of each candidates vying for the nation’s number one job, the Presidency.
focusmagazinesoline.com findings revealed that the hangover and brickbats that followed the parties internal primaries may not abate before these parties will go to the general polls, therefore, the next step is the rigmarole of manifesto presentations and campaigns.
As at last count, about 20 parties beat the INEC’s deadline for the submission of candidate’s name for the presidential election. They are:
Adewale Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Adebayo, is a lawyer and founder of the KAFTAN Television. He emerged as
the presidential flag bearer of the SDP at the party’s National Convention that was held in Abuja.
A former Vice president, Atiku Abubakar. Atiku clinched the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), having scored the highest vote in the party’s primary election held on May 28 at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja. Atiku served as the Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. He had unsuccessfully contested the Office of the President five times, in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019.

Contesting on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Tinubu emerged the flag bearer of APC for the 2023 election in the Special Convention held on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, in Abuja. He defeated the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Ameachi, the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan amongst others to pick the ticket.
Tinubu was a two-time governor of Lagos State and the former National Leader of the party. He also served as a senator during the aborted third Republic.
Accord Party (AP) is presenting Professor Christopher Imumolen. Imumolen clinched the presidential ticket of the Party for the general election in 2023 at a Special Convention held in Abuja.
Imumolen is the founder of Joint Professional Training and Support International Limited and UNIC Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Roots TV Nigeria, Dumebi Kachikwu, emerged as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) at the party’s presidential primary election, which was held in Abeokuta on June 9. He had surprisingly defeated the party’s candidate for the 2019 general election, Kingsley Moghalu to secure the ticket.
The Chief Security Officer to late Sani Abacha, Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), emerged as the presidential candidate of the Action Alliance for the 2023 general elections. Al-Mustapha is a former Nigerian Army major and intelligence officer who served as Chief Security Officer to the late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha. Abacha was Nigeria’s military head of state from November 1993 until his sudden death on June 8, 1998
Also in the race is Mr. Kola Abiola, the eldest son of late Moshood Abiola. Kola emerged as the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) candidate following his adoption at the party’s primary election.
A son of the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland in Kogi State, Malik Ado-Ibrahim, emerged as the presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP). Malik is a businessman and founder of the Reset Nigeria Initiative and One team Arrows A20.
Okwudili Nwa-Anyajike emerged the National Rescue Mission presidential (NRM) candidate in the party’s primary election held in Abuja.
Activist and online publisher, Omoyele Sowore had to stepped down from his position as the national chairman of the African Action Congress to become the party’s presidential flagbearer.
Sowore is a Nigerian human rights activist, pro-democracy campaigner, and founder of an online news agency. Sowore had also, previously run in the 2019 election
A former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, was confirmed as the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections. Kwankwaso, a former Kano state governor and the sole presidential aspirant, emerged as the candidate of NNPP at the party’s special convention held in Abuja on Wednesday, June 8.
Former Anambra State governor Peter Obi emerged as the flagbearer of the Labour Party for the 2023 presidential election at the national convention and presidential primary held in Asaba, Delta State capital, on May 30, after Pat Utomi stepped down. Obi joined the LP shortly after he resigned his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership and withdrew from the party’s presidential primary. He was the running mate of former vice president Atiku in the 2019 general election.

Peter Umeadi, a former chief judge of Anambra state emerged as the presidential candidate in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) primary election, which was held on Wednesday, June 9.
Sunday Adenuga( BP) a businessman from Ogun State, South-West Nigeria, Sunday Adenuga clinched the presidential ticket of the Boot Party (BP) for the 2023 general election in the party’s primary election on June 7.
Yusuf Mamman Dantalle (APM) is the Allied People’s Movement (APM) elected its national chairman, Yusuf Mamman Dantalle as its presidential candidate for the 2023 general election. Dantalle was the party’s sole presidential candidate and was elected by delegates in the presidential primary held at the party’s secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday 8th June 2022.
Most observers spoken to by focusmagazinesoline.com were of the opinion that the list is unwieldy. Mr. Isiaka Adegboyega, a legal practitioner and public commentator believed the country should have stick with and developed the two party system.
He enumerated the advantages of the two party system to include the fizzling away of primordial sentiments of ethnicity and religion. “Jettisoning the idea is bad, but here we are. We should make do with what we have”.
He pointed out that four of the candidates would make serious impact. He mentioned Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP, Mr. Peter Obi of LP and Dr. Kwankanso of the NNPP. But he believed that at the end of the day, any of these candidates that promised “delivery of good governance may carry the day”.
Hon. Tunde Badmus, a former legislator shared the same opinion with Mr. Adegboyega. He believed “it is time for our people to insist on the delivery of good governance and not the usual tokenism always handed over to them”.
These candidates that will appear on the ballot paper are not lacking in quality or education, nor in poor manifesto or campaign promises delivery, but getting down to deliver on good governance has always been an inexplicable problem with all the previous administrations.
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo took over in May 29, 1999, the expectations of the citizenry was sky high. This was justifiable for a country that had been under the Jackboots of the Military junta since 1984, save for the brief diachical experiment between1992 and 1993.
The arrangement that was started with the installation of the elected local government chairman and councillors under zero party elction in 1990 collapsed at the last hurdle of electing the president in June, 1993. The Military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida had inexplicably annulled the election in the middle of announcements of results by late Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the then Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC). Late Business mogul and publisher, M. K. O. Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was clearly coasting home to an unprecedented victory ahead of his rival, Mr. Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convenient (NRC).
Generally in the country today, there is widespread poverty, mass unemployment, religion distrust, dysfunctional educational system, and several infrastructural deficits. All these are coming at a time when the nation’s earnings are fast dwindling, or at worst, at its lowest ebb. Earnings from Crude oil have thinned down from the prime 86% figure of the early 2000s. Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, prices of the commodity have been precariously fluctuating, at times hitting zero mark at the peak of the pandemic.
To further compound the nation’s financial woes is the issue of debt burden. The country’s total debt stock rose to N41. 6 trillion in the first quarter of 2022, representing a N2. 05 trillion increase compared to N39. 56 trillion recorded as of December 2021.
The buffer account that the government always rely on in dire times, the Excess Crude Account (ECA) is down presently. The Federal Government said the balance in the ECA dropped from $35.37 million to $376,655 in June 2023, without providing further details.
ECA holds the difference between the market price of crude oil and the budgeted price of the product in Nigeria’s budget. It was established in 2004 by the President Olusegun Obasanjo led-Federal Government to save for the rainy days, stabilise the country’s economy and smooth out the impact of price volatility in oil exports. Since its creation, the ECA has been the subject of controversies and allegations of heists and corruption. The account is jointly owned by the FG and all the States of the Federation.
None of the three frontline candidates, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP, and Mr. Peter Obi of (LP) have unveiled his manifesto officially. But already, PDP’s candidate, Atiku had been basing his campaign on the need to restructure the country, revamp the economy and firmed up the security around the country.
Essentially, these have been the main theme of most candidates since the returns to democracy in 1999. The Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999, the Action Congress (AC) in 2007, and the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2014.

A group loyal to Tinubu of APC did pushed out a document titled, ‘My Vision for Nigeria’. In the document, Tinubu promised , “a nation transformed into greatness, the pride of Africa, a role model for all black people worldwide, and respected among all other countries.
Mr. Bayo Onanuga, director, Media and Communication of The Tinubu Campaign (TCO) said the 7-point agenda listed in the document would drive the Tinubu’s Presidency.
But a sour point in the present electioneering is the preponderance of religion factor in all debate, scheme, plan and appointment. Never in the annals of electioneering in the country have religion be made a focal issue as some are attempting to do now. In the rundown to the 1979’s general elections, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo contesting under the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, (UPN), picked a fellow christian and southerner, Mr. Phillips Umeadi as his running mate. Not much fuss was made of the issue with the ticket, same when the late Publisher of National Concord, Chief M. K. O. Abola who contested under the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), in 1993 who also picked a fellow Muslim, Ambassador Baba GANA Kingibe, thought from the core Northern state of Borno. But all hell have been let loose with the choice of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of a fellow Muslim from Bornu State. Kashim Shettima is a core northerner, a former governor and Senator, but the hues and cries against his nomination cut across party lines.
Two APC’s stalwarts, Mr. Boss Mustapha, former Secretary of the Federal Government (SGF) and Home. Yakubu Dogora, former Deputy Speaker,. Federal House of Representatives were most vehement in their objections to the choice of Shettima. They based their opposition mainly on the religion faith of the candidate and his running mate. Senator Abba Dabo representing Adamawa North has also joined the anti-same faith ticket campaign.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has almost broken into pieces over the issue of same faith ticket. While a section is vehemently opposed to the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC’s candidate, a section do not bother. All they want is who can resucitate the dying country and revamp her ailing economy.
Wole Soyinka was pizzed off by the rancourous debate over same faith ticket. He sees it “as a reflection of how the country has been fractured along religious lines and its citizens made to look different from one another right from childhood”.
The Nobel laureate described the issue as a mere phobia, stressing “ because when we hear expressions like Muslim/Muslim ticket, Christian/Christian ticket, Orisa/Orisa worshipper ticket. This is where it all begins. This is where the nervousness begins. This is where the anxiety and the phobia begin”.
The Senator Tinubu camp is however, seemed unfazed by the opposition to the ticket. Bayo Onanuga, disclosed to focusmagazinesoline.com that he was amazed that responsible leaders such as Lawal, Dalung and Dogara can stoop so low to spew hateful words as they allegedly did.
He said, “We know where these people are coming from. I won’t like to join issues with anybody. Dogara is a Christian. If you follow him, you will find contradictions in what he said. Who made Dogara the Speaker of the National Assembly? Jubril, a Muslim did. He was his campaign manager. Was it not a Muslim that also made Babachir Lawal the SGF?
“So when you see responsible leaders spew hatred around, you will know that it is not worth joining issues with them. Nigerians have seen through people like this. They are only inciting themselves because they lost out, not the masses. For now, we are looking forward to September when election campaign will kick off”
Onanuga, however, reassured that his principal is reaching out to religious bodies and leaders to assure them that he has no ulterior motive when he settled for a Muslim running mate.

These Bishops, Pastors are strange to us, CAN fumes

“The candidate is talking to the Christian leaders that our ticket is not by religion at all. We believe many of them will see reason and support our ticket. We don’t want to be seen debating Christianity or Islam, that belongs elsewhere. The Tinubu-Shettima ticket is a political one, not what Babachir and Dogara are portraying. We also know it is only a matter of time before they decamp,” he said.
The Lawal and Dogara’s group has been criss-crossing the country in search of alliances and coalition amongst different groups and individuals sympathetic to grouse with the same faith ticket of the APC. The team has met mobilized a group tagged the “APC Northern Christian leaders”. The meeting in a released a communique said it will set up a committee to consult Christian and Muslim stakeholders on a different political party, other than the APC, to support in the 2023 presidential election.The communique was jointly signed by Doknan Sheni (Plateau) North Central; Ishaya Bauka (Taraba) North East and Saidu Ibrahim (Jigawa) North West.
The leaders said the committee was to arrive at the best platform that would better galvanise and steer their patriotic spirits and resolve towards collectively building a united multi religious, multi-ethnic society as guaranteed by Nigeria constitution.
The leaders said that after careful considerations and deliberations, the summit resolved that the adoption of a Muslim–Muslim ticket by their party was divisive, unjust and insensitive.
It, however, stated that the Northern Christians in APC would not support or enable any attempt to divide Nigeria along religions lines.
“We resolved that we will set up a committee within us with a mandate to go round Nigeria and consult with both Christians and Muslim stakeholders, including other stakeholders.”
Working on this, the duo of Lawal and Dogara met with the governor of Benue State, George Ortom, his Rivers State’s counterpart, Mr. Nyesom Wike among others.
Investigations by focusmagazinesoline.com revealed that perhaps, Lawal and Dogara might and perhaps a few others might be the one toeing the religion line. Many people spoken to across party divides were of the opinions that good governance should be priorized over religion or tribal affiliations in deciding who paddle the ship of the nation after President Buhari.
Those spoken to believed that the economy is in shambles, security has collapsed, while the educational sector is almost comatose. An aggressive and dynamic President, they chorused is need post-Buhari.
INEC said the body is ready to conduct a free and fair election anytime, citing the recent Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections as examples. The electoral umpire has also released the full details of the registered voters state-by-state and region-by-region. The North West has the highest registered voters of 22.67 million, followed by South West with 18.3 million. The South South region followed with 15.2 million, North Central followed with 14.1 million, while North East recorded 12.8 million and the had South East with 11.49 million. The total registered voters is 96.2 million.
It is this 96.2 million voters that Nigerians home and in diaspora will rely on to either vote to enthrone good governance, or a confirmation of further descent into the nadir of hopelessness.
Those harping on the need for good governance however, have a backing of a survey conducted by the Africa Polling Institute (API), recently.
Dr. Olugbenga Ogunmefun, Director of Research of the Institute had disclosed at an interactive session with Arise News where he spoke about the result of a survey conducted by the API to gauge the mood of the nation ahead of the upcoming 2023 presidential election
According to him, despite the mixed reactions that have trailed the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, 67 percent of respondents of the survey said they don’t consider religion as a factor in deciding who should lead Nigeria come 2023.
In a video shared on YouTube by Arise News, Dr. Ogunmefun revealed: “In the survey we conducted, we asked Nigerians about the three most important things that they expect from the next president of Nigeria and three key variables came out.
The first one is the capacity and competence to revive the economy. The second one is commitment to tackling insecurity. The third one is the commitment to promoting good governance and cohesion
“67 percent of Nigerians said they are not interested in what religion the next president practices, they want somebody that is going to do the job irrespective of the religion of the person. We have the issue of the Muslim-Muslim ticket but we found out that they are not interested in religion. They are interested in the capacity of the person that is going to be the president. They say they will support a person that can bring positive change in the country and they are not bothered about whether he is a Christian, Muslim, or Traditionalist”
focusmagazinesoline.com (C 2022)