Around 4 a.m. (WAT) on March 1, 2023, the winner of the 2023 presidential election was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). It was no other person than this guy:
Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
In a three-horse race, Tinubu secured Nigeria’s highest post with 8.7 million votes, defeating his once-friend-now-foe, Atiku Abubakar, who had 6.9 million votes, and the accidental frontrunner, Peter Obi with 6.1 million votes.
It is also worth mentioning that Tinubu won the vote with only 36% of Nigeria’s votes and won 12 states. His major contenders also won 12 states each, making it Nigeria’s most closely contested election since Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999.
The important question right now is what is in Tinubu’s stew, and how does it affect you?
Old naira notes may be back in circulation
If you’ve been following us, you’d notice that Nigeria has been facing a severe scarcity of new naira notes in the weeks leading up to the elections. There has been a tug of war between the CBN and Supreme Court over whether the old naira notes should make a comeback or not.
For Tinubu, his stance on this issue is very clear — all naira notes, both old and new, should co-exist until 2024. For him, this was not said as a sign of displeasure towards the policy, but rather against its disruptive implementation.
On March 3, the Supreme Court finally gave a ruling on both old and new naira notes to co-exist until 31 December. But who knows? With Tinubu as president, the deadline may be shifted to some new date in 2024 after all.
The advent of student loans and ‘quality’ education in Nigeria
This is a project that Tinubu is highly passionate about. He has been preaching about student loans since Buhari’s campaign for the presidency in 2015.
In Tinubu’s manifesto, he said that his loan programme would have a maximum borrowing limit and flexible repayment provisions. Institutions will charge more cost-reflective tuition fees.
On quality education, there will be a curriculum that matches the needs of Nigeria’s private sector. Nigeria’s history will be reintroduced to classrooms in the country, while indigenous language courses will be compulsory for all children until the completion of secondary school.
Military recruitment of 50 million Nigerian youths
Nigeria has had an issue with insecurity for the last eight years. In 2015, the country’s insecurity challenges only happened in the Northeast. There were kidnaps and killings by the Boko Haram sect. Now, it has spread across all six regions of Nigeria.
What is Tinubu’s reply to this? Recruit 50 million youths!
At his 69th birthday colloquium in Kano in 2021, Tinubu highlighted the need to address Nigeria’s security challenges. This was when he made the now-viral claim of recruiting 50 million youth into the army.
He also said he will create anti-terrorist battalions with special forces. Their main objectives would be to tackle terrorists, kidnappers and bandits.
Our condolences to all Nigerian youths out there. You better start packing your bags just in case.
A revamp of Nigeria’s economy
According to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Nigeria’s unemployment rate is projected to hit 37% in 2023. This is in addition to the 133 million Nigerians who are living in poverty, according to the latest figures by the National Bureau of Statistics.
However, Tinubu plans to focus on accelerated and inclusive, double digit economic growth. This was said by Wale Edun. He is a Tinubu ally who could become Nigeria’s next finance minister once Tinubu is sworn into power.
According to Edun, “Tinubu said ‘you have to set a ceiling of at least 6% growth per annum because anything below that will not start denting poverty.”
Agricultural reform in Nigeria
With Tinubu’s love for cassava, garri and ewa, there is no doubt that he has the agricultural sector of Nigeria in mind.
When Tinubu won the presidential ticket of his party in June 2022, he said he “will create jobs for our youth in agriculture, from the Zamfara and Osun gold deposits to the vast agricultural lands across the country.”
In his campaign manifesto, Tinubu vowed “to help the farmer and his community in new and significant ways that usher in a true and complete rebirth of Nigerian agriculture.”
A litany of presidential gaffes
With hit gaffes such as PDAPC and Bulaba, we can be sure to have more of this in a Tinubu democracy. He even made another one recently by calling himself a governor instead of president during his acceptance speech as president-elect.
Now that you know what to expect in Tinubu’s Nigeria, is it so bad after all? Or is a Tinubu presidency still a threat to the lives of Nigerians?
