WHAT IS THE VALUE OF ENDORSEMENT IN NIGERIA?

The clocks ticks furiously but fatefully towards a general election that would prove crucial for the future of the country. There are many Nigerians who believe with all their hearts that when the ballot box opens to voters in February 2023, it will be to conduct a referendum on the direction the country will take in the next four years and maybe beyond.

In a country where the deepest reservations are often saved for those who provide leadership, the relationship between Nigerians, their leaders and the process that throws them up remains a terribly luckless one. The scars are etched deep into the psyche of the country.

Key national institutions continue to flounder. The political process remains afflicted by cancerous apathy and inertia. Corruption continues to run riot. A floundering economy has retched up a people deeply scarred by poverty. In the last decade, insecurity has come to add insult to injury.

For example, in the Southern Kaduna region of Kaduna State, it continues to appear that there is a devilishly orchestrated attempt to obliterate entire communities and commandeer their ancestral lands. What has especially broken the heart is that the government with which the people have a social contract has largely stood by and done nothing.

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Nigerians are not exactly spoilt for choice. Yes, for the first time in a long time, there is a third force bearing down on the horizon of presidential elections in Nigeria. That this third force led by the Labour Party continues to give traditional heavyweight stomach cramps as Nigeria gradually approaches decision day is a measure of just how serious it is.

In 2015, a seismic shift in Nigeria’s politics saw the Peoples Democratic Party shunted out of power. The All Progressives Congress which snatched power in historic elections has rather uninspiringly gone on to post more than seven years of insipid leadership marked by incompetence, nonchalance and debilitating dereliction of duty.

For whatever the All Progressives Congress wants to continue, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the one who has been charged with the task.

To end eight years out in the cold, the Peoples Democratic Party has placed its fate and faith in the hands of serial contender Atiku Abubakar. The forceful forays of the Labour Party into the corridors of power in Nigeria is led by Peter Obi, the Peoples Democratic Party’s prodigal son whose refreshing ideas and jarring honesty is threatening to collapse the house of sand that Nigerian politics is.

The three candidates believe that they have what it takes. For different reasons, different Nigerians believe they have what it takes. Only recently, former president Olusegun Obasanjo endorsed Peter Obi of the Labour Party as the best candidate for Nigeria. In a biting letter sent out to Nigerian youths, Obasanjo urged Nigerians to cast their votes for him. There have been endorsements from other prominent Nigerians too for Peter Obi.

With different motives behind these endorsements, some of them undoubtedly ulterior, what is the value of an endorsement in Nigeria?

It may be heavyweight or paperweight depending on the influence of the person giving it. Yet, it is telling that a man who was president while the three leading presidential candidates were in active politics has gone for Peter Obi.

The signs are clear and the handwriting is scrawled large on the wall. Nigeria is drinking in the leadership last chance saloon. Another mistake as was tragically made in 2015 and 2019 might prove the final straw.

It is doubtful that the Giant of Africa can afford such a calamity at the moment. Nigerians must choose wisely. Eccentric endorsements may not be perfect guides in making informed choices but they could offer crucial clues.

Kene Obiezu, @kenobiezu