Despite Assurances, Anxiety Mounts Over 2023 General Elections
President Muhammadu Buhari's approval for the constitution of a 22man Presidential Transition Council to ensure a smooth handover to a newly-elected President on February 25, 2023 underlines his commitment to a free and fair election this year.
A senior government source said Buhari yielded to “sound advice to approve the committee in order to keep naysayers at bay, despite repeated assurances at different fora of his commitment to the conduct of a free and fair election.
“Some people were even mischievous enough to suggest the idea of an Interim Government,” added the source.
Even so, anxiety is still mounting over the forthcoming General Election. It is not hard to guess where this is coming from.
While millions of Nigerians were suffering from the twin evil of fuel and naira scarcity all through last week, many were able to detect a common enemy in the average and self-seeking politician.
Abeokuta, now famous as a launch-pad for political missiles during this election season, where the presidential candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, confronted President Buhari with his pre-presidential convention ‘Emilokan’ diatribe and a recent outburst accusing ‘the powers that be’ of scheming to derail his presidential ambition by orchestrating the currency swap and fuel crisis, was in the news again last week.
Angry residents protesting against the twin scarcity marched through the Sapon area of the ancient town and shouted “Aa fe politicians” in Yoruba, meaning “We don’t want politicians again.”
Although Tinubu’s recent proclamation in Abeokuta gave an unnecessary political colouration to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s currency redesign project, which was aimed at controlling money supply, checking counterfeiting and aiding security agencies in tackling illicit financial deals, the protesters who dramatised the terrible pain and suffering that Nigerians were undergoing merely re-echoed Tinubu’s insinuation that politicians had manipulated the system to their advantage by hoarding the new naira for vote buying, not minding the negative impact on the people. Coming less than a fortnight to the muchanticipated presidential poll, the ongoing fuel and naira scarcity has further worsened the anxiety of a majority of Nigerians, many of whom are overwhelmed by the harsh economic, political and security situation in the country.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has thus far shown his readiness to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections and it will be a national calamity for the politicians to disrupt the process,” Chief Willy Ezugwu, General Secretary of the umbrella body of registered political parties and political associations in the country, Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, told THEWILL.