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2023 and the Contentious Issue APC Must Confront
For the APC, the 2023 presidential elections present a real test of its ability to survive and forge a unified front as a political organisation. The Buhari era is about to end, and the hitherto unifying figure of a Buhari that appears to have glued the disparate tendencies in the party together will no longer be there. Already, the commencement of the process of picking the party’s candidate for the 2023 contest has shown glaringly that the contest will be brutal and acidic, unless a miracle happens. Since the party’s initial objective of booting out PDP and gaining power has been achieved in the Buhari two-term presidency, 2023 will signal for the party the real wheeling and dealing of ruthless ambition driven by self-aggrandizement among its contending power blocs.
Even now, allegations of betrayal, vociferous proclamation of personal ambitions and dirty innuendoes about imposition of candidates have started reaching an uncomfortable level in the party.
Regardless of the drama and subplots that have started unfolding, it is for the party and Nigerians generally to zero in on a candidate that has the right mix of persona, charisma, vision, discipline, awareness and courage to keep the party and the country in good shape post 2023.
The task may be daunting but what the party needs to do is clear cut. This is because the problems a post Buhari president will confront are already here with us now.
One, with continuous fall in oil prices and a general lull in business activity since the outbreak of COVID-19, the economic realities have been worsened by the growing poverty and unemployment which has made upward social mobility unachievable for the wider population. The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics has continued to record staggering inflation rates, with food inflation and general cost of living growing out of hand and, according to the World Poverty Clock, nearly half of the Nigerian population currently subsist in extreme poverty. In fact, the Brookings Institute has predicted the figure to rise to 110 million by 2030.
