Nigeria’s crowded presidential race is forever multiplying and rising with it is the curiosity over why so many of the politicians in a country many of its people call a failed state, want so desperately to become the commander in chief.
The mushrooming crowd of presidents to be include a former vice president who has sought the highest office four times, a current vice president and his erstwhile political benefactor, a leading priest, a current head of the country’s upper legislative chamber.
The to be presidents also include several serving ministers, the current central bank governor who should have access to the bank account profile of all Nigerians, several serving and past state governors including those whose corruption cases are still pending in the courts and many others.
Groups are even now trying to throw into the race, a former president blamed by many Nigerians for the unbridled level of corruption and the collapse of the country’s economy.
All this desperation in a nation that even some of its current leaders admit is in such economic and political mess that should frighten anyone. So, why do many Nigerians want to take up the office of president in a country in such dire straits?
According to Mahmud Jega, “I though by now the Nigerian presidency will be so unattractive. Why should anyone be eager to inherit Boko Haram, terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, secessionists, communal warriors, oil thieves, sea pirates, depreciated naira, depleted foreign reserves, high debt service cost, plummeting oil production, astronomical costs of diesel and aviation fuel, high unemployment, suspension of rail and aviation services, trillions in petrol subsidy, unimplementable Petroleum Industry Act, 13 million out of school children, bloated civil service, exploding illegal refineries etc.”
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Nigeria has never been more divided, and its youth have never had a greater urge to flee the country, not just for education abroad as was the case in the past but for greener pastures abroad.
The uniqueness of the current exodus from Nigeria is that it includes many privileged ones holding well-paying jobs and their primary reason for leaving they say is to give their children a secured future.
Militancy is rife across the country and kidnapping has become very rampant so much that Nigerians are scared to embark on road travel; life expectancy is low with infant mortality higher than that in most peer countries. Nigeria cannot even produce the petrol its people consume and imports much more than is needed because of massive abuse and smuggling.
Education is languishing with universities closed for more than they are open and undergraduates in the country are unable to predict when they will begin the arduous and sometimes impossible journey into the labour market due to incessant strike by their teachers.
One of Nigeria’s biggest failures today is the lack of capacity to bring in the tax revenues but most of those hoping to be president have never paid their fair share of tax.
In a country where corruption is so rife, Nigerians are now beginning to like the proliferating crowd of presidential aspirants to the quest by many to be the chosen few that dispense privileges.
This view is reinforced by the fact that it costs a lot to campaign in Nigeria. For a start, in the ruling APC each aspirant must first cough up $240,000 for the nomination form printed on mere paper. But that is just the beginning. This has left Nigerians who are ever so cynical wondering why so many are angling to be their president.
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