As the stage for the thrilling 2019 Presidential election is set, many Nigerians are anxious to get a glimpse on how the elections will look like. Unlike 2015 when change battles continuity, 2019 is most likely going to be maintaining a change Vs changing the change. It is a fact today that the APC lead government hasn’t delivered enough of the change it promised, excuses and shoddy anticraft war has greatly obscured their performance. Though some of the excuses are valid, it is most expected for an active government to focus more on adding value to its citizen than dissipating most of it energy in fighting ex-culprits in expense of todays culprits. More so, the ruling party has in the last two years been overwhelmed by self acclaimed political drive in the realm of power drunkenness thus could not deliver effectively. While this is happening, The opposition Party on the other hand appeared to have lost credibility and strength to form a formidable and strong opposition to over power the ruling APC, the absence of party ideology and the desperate quest for comfort zone by its members has brought the party to it knees hence allowed APC to enjoy popularity even with poor performance. How long can this popularity thrive and what other players could support the incumbent in that direction?
GOD & PEOPLE
With God they said everything is possible. President Muhammadu Buhari spent about 160 days in London receiving medical treatment, a development that scared the morale of many Nigerians on whether the president could complete his tenure or not. No one seems to talk about his reelection bid during the trying times not even the diehard optimists. As God will have it, President Buhari returned stronger and more energetic than before. An indication that God has answered the prayers of many Nigerians for their President. Health is no longer an issue as the President’s new look showed he is fit and capable to contest an election. God has giving him good health with an uncommon thrilling popularity that no politician has ever gotten till today in Nigerian politics.HE placed him above all presidential candidates as evidenced by an online poll conducted by sahara reporters on its twitter page. The poll was conducted on the 28 of November, 2017 between Atiku and PMB. 49% of the respondents said they would vote for PMB over Atiku,who is been been rumoured to be the potential presidential candidate for the PDP in 2019.
PDP
The one time largest party in the African continent that had ruled Nigeria for 16 straight years could not regain all its lost political strength till this moment. The absence of internal democracy and poor funding has grounded the PDP immediately after been swept by APC in 2015, The party’s former chairman Makarfi revealed the poor financial status of the party during the opening remarks at the elective convention of party, he said the party has less than N2m in its account and has been living from hand to mouth. Apart from insufficiency of funds, another disturbing trend in the PDP is the turbulent decamping of its members into the ruling party. Just fews days ago, some PDP House Reps members in Ondo, Imo and Oyo join APC, a former Senator in Oyo State also joins APC, the worst post-convention disaster occurred when a new PDP faction emerged few days ago with a secretariat in Asokoro, The angry members said that the new chairman was imposed with impunity.
ECONOMY
Many Nigerians are not happy with some of the economic policies of the Buhari lead administration, nevertheless, one could confidently say better days are possible ahead. Evidenced to this fact is the recent report released by the National Bureau of Statistics NBC stating that the Consumer Prince Index CPI shows the 10th consecutive drop in inflation since January 2017. This comes few weeks after NBS confirmed Nigeria has exited its worst economic recession in more than two decades. Nigeria’s external reserve hit its four-year high of $38.2bn said the CBN governor. In the same vein, the Nigeria Custom Service has announced the revenue collection of about N1trn in 2017 as against N770bn target set for the year. In a rare development, the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation NNPC has earlier this week confirmed that it can now account for every barrel of crude oil it sell as 98% of its transactions involving supply, marketing and sale of Nigerian crude oil globally are now automated. Rice important from Thailand dropped from 644,1313 metric tonnes to about 21,000 metric tonnes between September 2015 and September 2017. More so, JAMB under Prof Oloyede remitted the sum of N7.8bn to FG from 2016 UTME, this is far from what it ussd to be remitted to the FG treasury before the coming of this administration.
EMPLOYMENT
UnEmployment is one of the biggest challenge to our development as a nation, To address rising unemployment in the country, Nigeria is expected to create 4.5 million jobs annually, according to a report by the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme, NSRP. While Nigeria suffer from dwindling resources, the PMB’s lead government has created in two years over 200,000 jobs for unemployed graduates through the N-Power scheme which is the biggest employment scheme in the Nigerian history. Over 12,000 cooks were employed across the 36 states and Abuja under the FG school feeding program. The FG has also engaged 57,000 people through the Government Enterprise & Empowerment Programme GEEP and empowered 26,000 ordinary Nigerians through Conditional Cash Transfer CCT. PMB has also fulfill his earlier promise to recruit 10,000 police into the Force, they include Engineers, Scientists, Technicians, and Community health officers. The impact of these employments on the economy and well been of this country cannot be denied.
SECURITY
Boko Haram has been the biggest security threat in Nigeria since 2009, Many territories were lost, thousands were killed, schools and houses burnt as many big cities were deserted as a result of boko haram activities.The Boko Haram fracas continue to thrive until when President Muhammadu Buhari came with a different approach to tackle it. He directed the military command center to relocate to Maiduguri immediately, he appointed new service chiefs with a clear mandate that consequently gave impetus to the military operation in North East. According to a research coducted by Jolins Hopkins University, indicates that Boko Haram has killed 244 people in the second quarter of 2016, the lowest quarterly figure for five years. As at today, many cities have been librated and thousands of IDP’s have returned to their comfort zones. Though the need to address some humanitarian challenges in the North East cannot be overemphasized, government should be applauded for librating communities from the hands of these terrorist and ask them to do more.
OSINBAJO
There has been no success recorded under PMB’s government that is unconnected with the role played by his everly loyal Vice, his pattern of decision making was understood when the President was away for medical leave. The country hardly noticed the absence of the President obviously due to the up and doing drive of the competent Law professor. His political skills and unreserved energy most be recognize when accessing the performance of this government all the time, noting the political strength of the South West and their support for the ruling progressive party can add up to the likely success of the incumbent come 2019.
Abdulmajid Lawan is a Freelance journalist based in Jos, Plateau State. abdulmajidlawan@gmail.com
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