the ruling party chooses its candidate in disunity

The ruling party in Nigeria, in full disunity, is preparing to nominate this week its candidate for the presidential election of 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari calling for overcoming the infighting within his political formation.

Voters in Africa’s most populous country will go to the polls in February 2023 as the head of state ends his second term, criticized on all sides for his inability to stem the jihadist and criminal violence plaguing Nigeria.

One of the main issues of this election will therefore be the question of security. Sunday’s massacre of twenty-one people in a church in the south-west of the country, a region yet almost spared from violence, is a cruel reminder of this.

For the time being, no favorite has emerged in the Congress of Progressives (APC), which is organizing its primaries on Tuesday, June 7 in Abuja, the federal capital, further accentuating internal divisions. Especially since its rival, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party, has nominated the experienced Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, to run for the presidency.

Alternation between North and South

Among the APC contenders in the running are historic party leader Bola Tinubu, current vice president Yemi Osinbajo, former transport minister Rotimi Amaechi and Senate speaker Ahmad Lawan.

President Buhari urged his political formation to find a consensus, while refraining from publicly supporting a candidate. “I ask you to recognize the importance of party stability and unity which cannot be overstated”Mr. Buhari said in a statement released over the weekend.

As of Monday, APC delegates flocked to the capital ahead of the start of the primaries scheduled for Tuesday. The name of the winner will probably be known between Tuesday evening and Wednesday. Part of the internal divisions of the ruling party relate to the “zoning”a tacit agreement in Nigeria that the presidency should alternate every two terms between a candidate from the predominantly Muslim North and from the predominantly Christian South.

This agreement aims to maintain balance in a country which has more than 250 ethnic groups and where inter-community tensions are frequent. But the PDP chose to ignore the “zoning” by choosing as candidate Mr. Abubakar, a wealthy businessman from the North, who is running for the presidency for the sixth time in three decades, thus relaunching the debate on the side of the APC.

The Strongman of Lagos

Another tacit agreement from the APC is that a Muslim candidate chooses a Christian running mate, and vice versa. Problem: the party does not agree for the moment on any duo. Bola Tinubu and Ahmad Lawan are both Muslims, from the south and north respectively. The other two, Yemi Osinbajo and Rotimi Amaechi, are Christian and from the south.

Mr. Tinubu made a lot of headlines last week when he candidly claimed the presidency, saying he had brought Mr. Buhari to power, a view shared by many in Nigeria. “I helped Buhari become president. I met him in Kaduna and convinced him to run when he had given updid he declare. It’s my turn to be president. » Mr. Tinubu is the former governor of Lagos, the economic heart of Nigeria, where he retained considerable influence.

The final choice of the APC is crucial: the two final candidates will compete to obtain the presidency of a country plagued by widespread insecurity, from the jihadist insurgency in the North-East to the criminal gangs ravaging the North- West and the Center, passing through separatist movements in the Southeast.

The economy is also a major subject in Nigeria, which has 215 million inhabitants, 83 million of whom live below the extreme poverty line, according to the latest census by the organization World Poverty Clock.

Africa’s largest economy, weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic, is now bearing the fallout from the war in Ukraine, which has driven up fuel and food prices across the continent.