With an election happening, Gwynne Dyer says Nigeria can become 'a famine-stricken basket-case of a country — or, with wise leadership and decent government, Africa’s greatest power and a major player in all the world’s major decisions.'
GWYNNE DYER: Dark horse presidential candidate could help corrupt Nigeria put its best foot forward onto the world stage
If there is one thing that Nigeria has a surfeit of, it is poor leaders. The military regimes that ran the country almost all the time from independence in 1960 until the end of the 20th century were mostly corrupt and incompetent and the elected civilian presidents of the past two decades have carried on that tradition.
A case in point is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, twice governor of Lagos state and known as the godfather of Nigerian politics. He claims to be responsible for outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari’s election victories in 2015 and 2019. His slogan, “emi lo kan” , could well define the entire existing political system.
Unfortunately for Abubakar, a Muslim from the north, the unwritten rule in Nigerian politics is that southern Christians and northern Muslims take turns in the presidency. Since the outgoing president is also a northern Muslim, he is fighting custom and tradition — which may open the path for a man who doesn’t have much use for either.
Whether Obi could then use the presidency to jolt Nigeria out of its long rut — whether he really even wants to do that — remains to be seen. But his social media campaign is transforming Nigerian politics and it would certainly help to have a functional Nigeria.
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