Why are Nigeria elections the most important in the world in 2023?

This year there will be elections in different countries of the planet. Those closest to us and most directly relevant to us are certainly those in Poland; Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers in Italy are the ones in Poland who will decide whether the allies of the Law and Justice Conservatives (Pis) stay in power or whether the balance is struck. will change in the nation and the EU. But in Italy, one of the countries whose fate we unfortunately ignore, as if it doesn’t matter or does not concern us, there is another election that we should pay much more attention to: Nigeria.

Africa’s largest economy and the continent’s most populous country will be called on February 25 to elect its new president, who will replace former general Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in power since 2015. 18 candidates are vying, but only three really stand a chance of winning. The two favourites, after all, are 70-year-old Bola Ahmed Tinubu and 76-year-old Atiku Abubakar. The first, a Purely Progressive Congressman (APC) like Buhari, is a wealthy ex-governor of Lagos who has long sought the presidency and whom many see as the most likely winner.

Second, he runs for the main opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), and has so far failed to run for the presidency the fifth time he has run for it. A prominent businessman, his political career has mostly been in the corridors of power as he has served as a senior official, but was also vice president of Olusegun Obasanjo. Like Tinubu, he has been accused of corruption and nepotism, and vehemently denies the charges.

Neither will represent real change, and the face of the possible breakthrough appears to be that of the young (though not very young) Peter Obi, who hopes to break the two-party system that has dominated Nigeria since the end of the military regime. 1999. The 61-year-old works for the little-known Labor Party and although he was part of the PDP until last year, he is seen as a relatively new face and enjoys ardent support on social media and among the country’s youth. The wealthy businessman served as the governor of southeastern Anambra state from 2006 to 2014. His supporters, known as ‘OBIdients’, say he is the only honest and honest candidate, but it seems unlikely that he will win, except for a tough plot.

So why are these elections so important? With a population of 206 million, Nigeria is by far the most populous country on the continent. Africa is rapidly witnessing the world’s greatest demographic shifts and will grow from 1.4 billion to nearly 4 billion by the end of the century, according to United Nations estimates. During that time, Nigeria, a country about twice the size of France and three times the size of Italy, will double the population, far surpassing the United States and become the third most populous country in the world after India and China. If it can potentially transform itself into an economic powerhouse with good leadership or, on the contrary, overcome its economic difficulties, it will inevitably become the source of major migration events.

In absolute numbers, the number of international migrants from the country rose from around 450,000 in 1990 to 1.4 million in 2019. However, its share of the total population in 2019 (0.7%) is much lower than the rest of the country. -Saharan Africa (2.5%). Historically, most Nigerians have migrated to sub-Saharan Africa, but the share of migrants moving to Europe (31%) and North America (22%) has increased significantly since 1990, with Nigerians making up the largest group of immigrants from this region. forms. Part of the continent that came to the EU during the “migration crisis” of 2016 and 2017.

Thanks to its oil reserves, Nigeria is the richest state in Africa in terms of national gross domestic product, but the wealth is not evenly distributed and when we look at the per capita GDP, it regresses to 33rd place. In 2018, 40% of Nigerians, 83 million people, more than the entire Italian population, lived below the poverty line, and most are without education and access to basic infrastructure such as electricity, drinking water and toilets. Abuja, the capital of the country, also needs a strong, stable and capable government to combat the threat of Islamic terrorism; this is not a threat that only concerns the country, but as we have seen many times, unfortunately, it is a threat that can have consequences for the whole world.

The country, once the main peacekeeping force in the region, has for years failed to guarantee security in large areas of its territory, particularly in the northwest and northeast areas, where Islamist rebels have waged terror campaigns and kidnapped hundreds of people. children and made long-distance travel increasingly dangerous. The Boko Haram rebellion that broke out in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 killed more than 350,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes. The group spread into the swampy region of Lake Chad, where the armies of Chad, Nigeria, and Niger had fought against them for years but had little success.

And how important these elections were, first of all, understood the youth of the country that foreign Peter Obi trusted for his hope of victory. About 40 percent of the registered voters are under the age of 34, and the election to be held on February 25 has already been defined as the “youth election”. The next government should aim to exploit the so-called demographic dividends to exploit the current rising proportion of young job seekers relative to society’s dependents, infants, retirees and the disabled at both ends of human lifespan. If properly exploited, it can bring prosperity to a nation’s economy.