A POssible Labour Party led Nigeria, should they win (2/4)

Mallam Mansur felt fortunate to have someone who understood him 
have the capacity to know so much about this “nyamiri” administration.
Mallam Mansur did what he knew he had to do. He started asking 
questions. Most of the time, Abdul was laughing at his questions 
because he said they made him look too afraid and worried. 
Abdul explained that the “dan kudu” had a very difficult start in 
office. Within his first six months, the legislature already tried to 
impeach him.        

"All we are saying, gives us Obi..."

It is exactly two months after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the election by two weeks, and declared a fresh election for the candidates of the APC and LP. Mallam Mansur still remembers the tears he shed after Peter Obi was declared the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a result of the run-off elections [1]. It reminded him of the celebrations when he was only seven years old and he heard, through the radio, that Nigeria was to become an independent country free of the control of the British. At such a young age, it did not matter what independence even meant. It did not even matter who the British were, all that mattered was that his whole community was celebrating and it was fun seeing older people become children again. Flashbacks of lines from Sir Tafawa Balewa’s speech race through his mind as he sips his hot kunun tsamiya [2].?

Mallam Mansur was not the only one very pessimistic and worried that INEC would not be able to pull off another election, especially because of the tensions resulting from lack of a clear winner, something that Nigerians have never experienced [3]. His radio, before the date of the run-off elections, was full of experts talking about Malawi’s example in 2020 but Mallam Mansur wondered how Malawi was Nigeria’s business, since the country could fit into Nigeria more than ten times with space for Zambia [4]. He still remembers his night prayers that period, begging Allah to ensure the tragedies he had experienced do not come upon his community like it did in 2019. The violence and threats of gunmen that prevented his community from voting in 2019 sent cold shivers down the spine of everyone he knew [5]. Even as the most respected man in his community, it was difficult to give people the hope that he did not think he would be able to find again. He had seen his three wives and eight children killed in front of him not too long after the 2019 elections were concluded. He was also there to help his best friend, Alhaji Mohammed, burn his farm and that of thirty other farmers, so that the men with guns would not return [6].?

The tragedies his community faced forced them to become politically engaged. Fear had lost its meaning and power because most of the families had nothing to lose. Mallam Mansur was amongst the people who ensured INEC officials stayed in the town a day before the elections so that the ballot boxes, which came for the second time in a space of a month, were protected and guarded by the police officers; which the state governor had sent to ensure there was no electoral violence [7]. His community had suffered enough and everyone knew which party they would not vote for. Nobody cared about who the alternative was, but who they were not voting for was what everyone agreed upon. The younger men in the community were amongst those who used the money contributed by everyone else to buy a smartphone that could allow them to share mobile data with officials and ensure they uploaded the results. It helped that Hajiya Mariam’s son, Abdul, had been able to finish university. Abdul became the interpreter and chief logistics officer for the over three thousand people who came out to vote. Everyone asked Abdul whether the officials were inputting the right figures. They questioned whether the mobile data was too slow, and if the young men should quickly go and buy more recharge cards from the town close by. Even the oldest women in the towns were outside under the hot sun, anxious, but still hoping against hope even if for the future of their grandchildren.?

The impossible becomes POssible

The members of the neighbouring community, however, were too ashamed that their candidate did not even end up as runner up especially after they had made so much noise and defended him as if he was a deity [8]. This created friction, and conflicts, two weeks after the elections, with the younger men from both communities having a clash because of the rain of insults in a bid to uphold the integrity of the people they voted for. Two people had died, one from each community, and ten were rushed to the hospital in the city. It took the wisdom of the community elders from both sides to have an agreement that their people will avoid one another, and prevent their weekly market tradings indefinitely, so that the younger men will not deepen the wounds that were now open. Mallam Mansur did not even know who Peter Obi was, or what the Labour party said they would do. He recognized two logos that day, and knew the experiences of the government of those two logos. He decided any logo aside from the two logos was the right option, though there were 16 others. Everyone in his community did the same. Very few people could remember which of the other logos they selected, they could care less. For them, the election was more intended to reduce the votes of the two recognizable logos than have a clear vision about which new logo to follow.?It did not help that there was little rain for the usage of umbrellas in his community, and there was no money again to buy expensive brooms that broke easily.

Soon after, people started talking about how Peter Obi was “dan kudu” [9], that he was “nyamiri” [10]. Mallam Mansur recognized how his Imam’s Khutbah started changing six months after Peter Obi was sworn in. The regular Khutbah of peace and forgiveness for lost brothers had turned more aggressive. Now the Khutbah identified the “mutanen kudu” [11] as threats to the Will of Allah [12]. Mallam Mansur did not understand how “mutanen kudu” who did not do anything to them were threats but the lost brothers who took everything from them should be forgiven. By the eighth month into the administration of the new government, he realized that even Alhaji Mohammed had started developing fears for these “mutanen kudu” that they had never seen. This caused Mallam Mansur to question his Imam for the first time in his entire life. He wanted to know why they were threats and how the people that took his family from him were not a threat. This did not sit well with his Imam. Being uneducated, the only thing Mallam Mansur knew how to read was his Qur’an because he had only been trained in the Islamiyya since he and Alhaji Mohammed were four years old. He remembers trekking to the next community where more than three hundred children will sit crammed inside Imam Mustapha’s classroom. As a result, Mallam Mansur was confused by the newspapers his Imam was pushing his way showing that the “mutanen kudu” should not be trusted. Mallam Mansur did not understand anything because he had never uttered a word in english. That did not stop him from disagreeing with the Imam and openly criticising him for making a huge issue of what their community has never been impacted by. Within two weeks, Mallam Mansur noticed how everybody started avoiding him.

“I came not to bring peace, but a sword”

The first time he realised people were trying not to associate with him was when Alhaji Mohammed refused to pray next to him for the morning Adhan. They had prayed together in the same area using the same mats for the last twenty five years. Immediately after the prayers, Alhaji Mohammed will avoid eye contact and quickly leave the mosque even before Mallam Masur could fold his mat and pick up his sticks and sandals. It did not surprise him that just a month later, Abdul’s mother came and told him that the Imam was telling people he was not a good man to follow, and that he had changed his attitude towards the worship of Allah. He was shocked how the people he always knew would believe this verdict of an Imam that had only been with them for five years [13]. Mallam Mansur cried bitterly in his mud house that night, asking Allah what sins he had committed. He was scared of leaving his community because he had only left three times in his entire life. What could meet him outside? Is it true that the “mutanen kudu” will in fact be as terrible as he had heard? How will he sustain himself since he does not speak english and he is too old to start life from scratch??

Hajiya Mariam was kind enough to sense his worries and told him she would ask her son Abdul, who returned to the city, whether he could accommodate him. After the attacks that killed his family, Hajiya Mariam was the one that always ensured he was sent kunun shinkafa, kunun gyada and miyan kuka everyday for three straight months. She had refused to marry her husband’s brother after her husband died and instead opted to run her cooking business and send her two children to school in another city. Deep down, she only wanted to marry one other man, but the circumstances had changed for her to take that path. Most of her life in this community, after she had returned, she spent as a widow. When her husband brought her into the community after marrying her in the city, Mallam Mansur always noticed her shyness when he looked at her. Now, her wealth has made her one of the most important people in the community and having a son who had a university degree made even the Imam make some exceptions for her. Hajiya Mariam and Mallam Mansur always respected one another, and because Mallam Mansur was, until now, the most respected man in the village, they nearly always saw eye-to-eye. Even before the Hajiya was taken away to live with her aunty in the city when both of them were just ten, their friendship was full of energy. Mallam Mansur remembered the day Hajiya Mariam brought the food herself on a particular day in his three months of mourning. She had entered his room because he refused to be seen by anyone during the daytime. She was the only one in the community who entered his room without asking, just like when they were much younger. He remembers her kindness because he could feel it filling the room the moment she walked in. For a moment that day, Mallam Mansur was sad that he got married before she came back to their commnunity.

“I got my (im)peaches out in NASS (oh, yeah, s***)”?

It took two more weeks for Mallam Mansur to leave his community and he felt like his world was about to end. The fact that he had to leave without letting anyone know, because many people were unwilling to speak to him, made things even harder for Mallam Mansur. He had never been to this city Abdul was living in and he did not even know how the young man was going to feel with someone his age coming to stay with him indefinitely. The young man knew very little about Mallam Mansur's relationship with his mother when they were just children. The journey to the city caused him to change vehicles twice and use a plane for the first time in his life. He had heard of planes, but had only seen the ones the military used to chase out the men with guns about ten communities away from Mallam Mansur’s [14]. Before Mallam Mansur could pray away his fear by rolling through his sub?a, he realized the plane was back on the earth. Abdul received him from the airport and took him straight to the house. The streets were emptier than he expected with buses moving everywhere. He had asked Abdul to change the car’s radio to the language he understands and heard how the radio host was laughing at the inability of this “nyamiri” President making the legislature pass a policy to make insurance coverage wider for more than forty million people. Mallam Mansur was shocked by that number, forty million. He had never been around more than twenty thousand people, and learning for the first time that his country wanted to give this thing they called "insurance" to forty million people puzzled him [15].?

It took Mallam Mansur weeks to realize that Abdul was a journalist and had his own show every weekday by 10am with two other women. Mallam Mansur had stumbled upon Abdul presenting only after he mistakenly sat on the remote control one day and switched on the television. That night, he felt compelled to talk to Abdul and ask him about his job. Abdul laughed and told him how his work involved talking about issues in the country, and keeping the audience updated with everything the government was doing. Abdul confessed that he found it sometimes annoying that his superiors always wanted him to overtly dramatize information. So many issues he discussed were not as serious. Some were not even confirmed but as soon as the large audience watched, it was given life and even government officials became involved. This made him wonder what kind of intelligence government officials actually received. He always thought it scary to be able to influence so much of what could be discussed every single week. Ever since the administration began, everyone has been extremely engaged in everything, especially the younger people. It’s like they hid their energies somewhere and somehow dug it back up. Abdul does not even remember seeing a sea of hawkers on streets anymore, it’s as if everyone had become serious and had more important things to do all of a sudden. The relic of just a year before is being forgotten and the waves of those coming back to the country is causing everything to become more expensive in his city. His landlord had given him four months' notice that his rent will increase by 15%. If there was anything Abdul hated, it's still the fact that the real estate sector in the country is still as opaque as a wall. Everybody sets the price as they want and nobody seems to be bothered, not even the administration.?

Abdul’s wife, Chinenye, had still refused to return from Montreal even though Abdul had tried so many times to convince her that things were getting better. This did not stop them from having their one hour calls, which had to be perfectly scheduled if not the time zone differences would get in the way. Chinenye always chose what Abdul wore to the show. He still remembers when both of them would organize fashion events at the University of Anambra. He always felt like he was an outcast but fashion allowed him to fit into the whole Eastern culture which he initially struggled with. Chinenye had tried many times to help him pronounce Igbo words but his thick northern accent always made him sound more foreign than he already was. His “Nwa m” became “Niwam m”, causing Chinenye to always mock him as "the unlovable loverboy", with the "the" sounding like "za". Chinenye always confessed that she first thought he was an idiotic tribalist whose father steals money from the capital because he always wore his Hula and kaftan even on days when the Campus sun felt like the center of hell. As compensation, she always told him he was the best looking man in a kaftan she had seen. Chinenye was herself very used to wearing the same kind of clothes but her fair skin always allowed the colors to be more pronounced.? When they confessed their love to one another in 300 level, both their parents had forbidden the relationship in their respective God’s name. Their parents said once they were out of the university they will discover they were not meant for each other. They were wrong. After they got married immediately after univeristy, both their families gave up and decided to not try and change their minds. It was Chineneye’s uncle, Chief Ezenwa, who owned the largest media house in the city, who gave Abdul his job. Chief Ezenwa only spent ten minutes interviewing Abdul. After he heard him speak, he said he reminded him of Sir Tafawa Balewa who he had seen briefly, and had dinner with in his father’s house, on the day of Sir Balewa’s assassination. He was still a young boy then, but he told Abdul that he still has clear memories of that day. Chief Ezenwa then sent Abdul to his seamstress to sew him a dozen suits to wear during the shows. Strangely, Abdul always felt like Chief Ezenwa was only Eastern in name and business. Every other thing about him was very northern, including how he ended his sentences with “toh, ba komai”.

Mallam Mansur felt fortunate to have someone who understood him have the capacity to know so much about this “nyamiri” administration. Mallam Mansur did what he knew he had to do. He started asking questions. Most of the time, Abdul was laughing at his questions because he said they made him look too afraid and worried. Abdul explained that the “dan kudu” had a very difficult start in office. Within his first six months, the legislature already tried to impeach him. According to the lawmakers, he was the worst thing to ever happen to the presidency. Citizens disagreed. The criticism against the President from the National Assembly was in every newspaper for two months. It did not help that his party was only able to convince 30% of the lawmakers to switch parties. The two other majority parties ensured he experienced hell. The fact that ten governors also defected did not make things better as the Governor’s Forum Chairman was determined to make everything a political issue. It was only because of the constant pressures experienced from their district members that made the senators back off. One by one, senators started fearing for their positions as different citizens started expressing their discontent with the Senate. The realities of the Senators became more heated up between the citizens because they refused to reduce their benefits or cut their salaries, even after a referendum was held for that purpose. It did not help that the President and his ministerial portfolio decided to take a 10% cut following the referendum. "The bloody bastard", a Senator had mistakenly said during a live coverage in one of the country's biggest news media. It was not long before different senators started being attacked and booed during special occasions. The people were with the President but the lawmakers were not. Isolated in Aso Rock, home felt outside of it; whenever the President was with ordinary people.?

A period of disOBIdience

An increase in violence in certain states in the country after the impeachment action made it even harder for the administration to claim everything was going alright. A year into the “nyamiri’s” administration however, Abdul explained to Mallam Mansur that everyone had calmed down and things were back in order. Mallam Mansur asked whether what his Imam had been saying were true but Abdul laughed even harder, stating that the group of people who were trying to use religion to divide the country have realised nobody is listening to them again because everybody is taking advantage of the economic opportunities they are finding. It's like everybody realized God has answered their prayers, Abdul had told him.

After the fuel subsidies were removed, most families planned for only one meal each day. It was strange how everybody accepted the change and only a few people complained about it. International organisations had already classified the country as edging closer to being a failed state because those who protested against the change started rioting around the country. Every month, after the President delivered his national address, everything would die down again until it started all over. It was like years were happening in months, months were crammed into weeks, and weeks were forced into days. The breakthrough came after the completion of the oil refinery that was much anticipated for. This allowed the government and the Central Bank to loosen its hold on the control of the naira and allow more people access its foreign exchange window. Within four months of the announcement, more than 10% of the country’s reserve depleted and inflation was hunting once again. This led to even more domestic borrowing by the government with non-functioning but high interest rates.

The gradual independence of the Central Bank also meant government's borrowing through the Ways and Means Advances was no longer acting like the generous uncle whose visits always ended with cash gifts. This led to the massive university strikes which lasted for eight weeks because students protested that living expenses were too high. Professors were in class, but the students were not. As the naira continued losing its value, the popularity of the President also started dwindling. Instead of the constant accolades the national address received, students started using the platform to crucify the president. The president’s messages had changed from economic reviews to one of pleas for patience. On one of the days he addressed the nation, his eyes became teary. Everyone could see the pressure he was feeling.

"He Is A Professor, I Am A Trader"

The President was also finding it increasingly hard to ensure trade was functioning as he had predicted. The global supply chains have been choked up by the protectionist policies of most of the G7 members. It did not help that the president in America was fracturing what was left of the Europeans' confidence in free trade because they demanded he slow down on funding the businesses of his country through the IRA. Due to the constant threat the American President said was coming from China, many people started mocking him saying he was too paranoid.

Peter Obi had met with the Chinese and American president in his first 100 days and secured agreements worth US$ 2.8 billion for the country. He was frustrated to find out that such agreements could last his whole tenure to realize. The proliferations of weapons and, more recently, aircrafts to Ukraine made it impossible to avoid the sirens of a nuclear war. The President’s first year disturbances made him even more desperate by the second year. Going to Saudi Arabia was not amongst his plans but they were the only ones willing to receive foreign governments in precarious times as these. He needed to sell the goods his country was constantly manufacturing. But at the same time, he also needed to find people with enough purchasing power to buy. It helped that the young Prince was constantly looking for how to spend the money stocked up in his sovereign wealth fund. The visit was a failure, but it had secured him a personal friendship and relationship with the Prince and his top officials. Due to the amount of Muslims his country had, and the great respect the previous administration showed to the Saudis, the Prince promised the President future opportunities regarding Halal meat exportation.

"Go and verify"

Every night during dinner, Mallam Mansur would ask more questions and Abdul would answer. The two became like grandchild and grandfather, though reversed. Hajiya Mariam herself often visited and updated Mallam Mansur of how his community had decided that the Imam had to leave because more than ten men had left the community the same way Mallam Mansur did, for similar accusations.

Abdul also told Mallam Mansur that the constant power supply his city received never used to be like that. He shared with him how his boss, Chief Ezenwa, now started worrying that the big generators they had will be of no use [16]. Mallam Mansur could not understand the excitement of the electricity as his community had never needed it, and they found a way to survive. Though only Abdul's city enjoyed uninterrupted power supply, Abdul had told him, the white business people were now rushing in to make investments. Mallam Mansur was puzzled how the white business people coming was a good thing, as he remembers stories his father told him of how it was the white people who first came with businesses that subsequently made the country their own.

Mallam Mansur argued that it would be foolish to allow them to come back again, or was this the plan of the “nyamiri”? He remembered how his father said the war that happened when he was 14 between the country and the “nyamiri” was because the “nyamiri” wanted to sell the country. Abdul this time did not laugh but told him those fears were just lies and rumors that were intended to make everyone in the north stand against the “nyamiri”.?Besides, the Presidency had just recently cut the ribbon for the National Civil War Museum in the capital; which allowed the older generation be more open about their fears, and see that most of it were baseless.

To read the introduction to this series and why I am writing it (1/4), click here.

To read my attempt to look into a post-Tinubu Nigeria (3/4), click here.

Notes

[1] The idea of the run-off elections is something that many people see as plausible due to the fact that it is becoming increasingly harder to really know which political party has the obvious advantage and is more likely to win the upcoming elections. Peter Obi’s third force’ Labour Party has the potential support of millions of young Nigerians but lacks the fundamentals of party politics. Atiku’s PDP is tied with internal conflicts that has exposed the weakness of the party, leading many to question whether a party divided internally can be able to unite a country that is already quite divided. Tinubu’s APC has the baggage of the worrying entitlement of “Emi lokan”, his muslim-muslim ticket, his health concern, his drug trafficking allegations and the track record of Buhari’s administration which is an APC administration after all.

[2] During the independence day celebrations, just like in other African countries, many people were full of hope and optimism concerning the future. The speech given by Nigeria’s former Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, shows the minds of Nigerians at that point. You can listen to part of the speech here. I will also recommend watching the Independence day scenes from the Half of a Yellow Sun film; when Olana and her family are celebrating and the streets are filled with flags. Despite this, I believe that the Half of a Yellow Sun book is not only a relevant historical fiction for all Nigerian generations but also better than the movie (even though I recommended a scene from it …. I will honestly take any opportunity to reference Chimamanda again and again) - I understand the bias in this and I will defend it anyday.?

[3] According to this source, INEC has printed double the number of ballot papers just to show that they are equipped to handle a run-off election, should it happen. That is a total 187 million ballot papers. More than ballot papers however, a run-off needs nearly the same energy as the initial election. Whether INEC has the financial muscle (of course it does not!) or motivation (what would most likely make the run-off work) is something we just have to wait and see if a run-off occurs.

[4] ?If the run-off elections happens, do not be surprised if you start hearing what happened in Malawi in 2020. A brief summary is that the then incumbent President, Peter Mutharika, lost the second election to Lazarus Chakwera, the opposition. In the first election, which Mutharika won, protests erupted because people accused it of rigging and corruption. Chakwera and another opposition leader went to court and the court agreed to the complaints filed, leading them to order for the elections to be done again. You should start here, if this is something you want to look into. Nigeria’s conditions however make a run-off a bit more complicated. For example, INEC has clearly stated that to be president, the candidate needs to secure “not less than one-quarter of votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all States in the Federation and the FCT, Abuja.” Where the votes are equal based on the just quoted statement, INEC will conduct a rerun and that is where the separation and the selection of the winner will happen depending on two things; total number of votes in the election or/and majority of votes in the highest number of states. If you are feeling geeky, you can consult INEC’s Voter Education platform where they explain further.??

[5] ?After the 2019 elections which saw the worst voter turnout yet in Nigeria’s history, just 35%, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report about the violence that occurred during that period. These involved attacks on communities, amongst others, which I used as the basis of this fiction’s plot.

[6] ?In Zamfara, bandits were involved in burning the farms of community dwellers. Though the plot brings out a picture of the opposite, it is not difficult for the reason stated to actually lead people to wilfully burn their own farms so as to prevent being targets. You can read the Zamafara case here. The Benue state mass burial, due to the herdsmen attack, might have been one of the saddest moments in the country’s recent history. Benue, whose motto is “food basket of the nation” was always very attractive for moving herdsmen for grazing purposes, which might have led to the fuelling of the conflict, asides the many other reasons that could be stated. It did not help that President Buahri’s open grazing plans were not received the way he might have thought they should have been received.

[7] ?The hotly debated BBC Eye Documentary titled “The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara”, which pushed Nigeria’s regulators to impose a $12,000 fine on the documentary’s broadcasters, shows examples of communities that are very isolated from reality. In such communities, we see how resentment towards politics has been brewed. Apathy has also been the norm as community dwellers have seen that they have been ignored times without number, leading to the formation of bandits, warlords and a paradoxical sense of structural anarchy.?

[8] ?Divisive politics is not new. To some people, like in this other BBC Eye Documentary, dividing is part of the game. The possible caution however is that now, things look a bit similar to 1960 when the three biggest ethnic groups had their own regional parties. Though a lot of Nigerians are uninterested in the inferences of the reality of a Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba man being on the ticket for the first time in a long time, and all three capable of winning …. It is not possible to say that it has not allowed for the IPOB references, and the muslim-muslim ticket, to be much more pronounced than it would have otherwise been in other circumstances. It is still a positive ordeal to see that many Nigerians have become more committed to the future of the country than the followership of their fellow regional candidates. Whether this will hold till the 25th of February is something we have to wait and see. You can view the INEC Chairman’s caution to divisive campaigns here.

[9] ?A person from the South (in Hausa language).

[10] ?An Igbo man (in Hausa language).

[11] ?People from the South (in Hausa language).

[12] ?This The Republic article written by Abdulrasheed Isah shows how religious leaders in Nigeria have over time become closer to politicians. This makes their sermons or Khutbahs skewed, leading to bigotry which often results in members who are unwilling to have proper discussions and conversations about political affairs. To dig deeper into this case, Dr Yusufu Bala Usman’s Manipulation of Religion in Nigeria: 1977-1987 is a book Abdulrasheed recommends. Though I have only gone through the review, Bala Usman refers to Nigeria as a “a sectarian capitalist state that rewards its people based on their religious, ethnic, or regional inclination.” The famous case of Mohammed Marwa (Maitatsine) with his constant condemnation of the Nigerian state through his messages, with the support of his followers, is another example of extremes that became a societal menace. The usual language being used under these circumstances revolves around the “us” vs “them”. This division sometimes has no meaning as many individuals are in fact part “us” and part “them”. Not all religious people politically agree with their spiritual leaders. Most of the time, the final aim of politicians is to be endorsed by religious clerics so as to gain voters through the clerics’ popularity base. This is also a good place to reference the scene in King of Boys when Oba goes to RMD’s (Reverend Ifeanyi)?church to seek his endorsement; basically the whole point of this note. If you have never seen a Nollywood movie when the lead political actor does not go to church or mosque at least once, just know it's not the real Nollywood.??

[13] ?In a very strange way, this plot, which portrays what is about to happen to Mallam Mansur is similar to Chinua Achebe’s harbinger, or locusts premonition, in Things Fall Apart, which ultimately causes Okonkwo to be ostracized, as will happen with Mallam Mansur. Both, for the same reason, even though Okonkwo ends without his life.

“They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm.”

If you understand the reference for pick up his sticks and sandals, you might be a connection or a conversation away from a new best friend.

[14] ?The use of fighter jets by the Nigerian army is well known by people interested in security affairs in the country. Unfortunately, most of the news concerning the jets comes about as a result of it being shut down or its acquisition raising questions in the public. After President Obama halted Nigeria’s acquisition of some fighter jets because it had bombed a camp for displaced people in 2016, it was no surprise that President Buhari’s $500 million purchase of jets and ammunition from the Trump administration became news very quickly in 2021.

[15] One of the targets of the Labour Party is to provide free healthcare for over 100 million Nigerians. Civichive have analyzed this promise and judge that it is not plausible especially because the percentage of the health budget has always been low since this incumbent administration started. This is despite the Abuja declaration where African countries committed to ensuring 15% of their annual budgets would be dedicated to the health sector. The Nigerian Federal Government Health Budget Allocations from 2016 to 2023 is represented just below the footnote in the story.

[16] ?A world bank power sector survey concerning Nigeria’s power sector said that over 78% of electricity consumers in Nigeria received less than 12 hours of electricity supply daily. If you are a committed Stears reader, you will find that they talk about Nigeria’s power sector extensively. In 2022, Adesola Afolabi , the financial analyst and deputy editor at Stears, scored the Buhari government on the power sector and the verdict was as follows: it failed to generate the 1,000 MW it promised yearly; five (of nine) which universities were promised solar-powered energy had received it; only two, one an off-grid project and the second a rural electrification project, of these projects were fully achieved, and about three actually regressed. This shows that no matter the promises given, trying to solve what gave others so much problems will not be easy.