Despite President Buhari declaring his intentions to Nigerians about his rerun for office come 2019 as well as being the flagbearer of the ruling party APC, it is unclear if he will continue to be in the office or he will lose the seat to either Atiku or Moghalu who are his oppositions for the upcoming election.
As many Nigerians now look up to the People Democratic Party (PDP) to rescue them from the suffering into which President Buhari has plunged them, there is talk making the rounds that PDP will make Buhari’sage an issue in the coming presidential election. Some of PDP powerbrokers are said to be working towards choosing a much younger person than Buhari to fly the party’s presidential flag and so moves are therefore being covertly made in some quarters to work against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s possible candidature on the ground that he is in Buhari’s age bracket. Buhari is 75, Atiku is 71. On the basis of the foregoing, we highlight 5 reasons President Muhammadu Buhari may lose re-election in 2019.
1. Herdsmen attack
Nigeria has been battling with the crises between herdsmen and farmers before the present administration came on board, but with the antecedent of President Muhammadu Buhari, many believed that within the shortest space of time, herdsmen attack across the country would be a thing of the past. But they were wrong as these crises linger on and many lives have been lost in it. Amnesty International (AI), a global human rights watchdog, described the response of the federal government to communal violence as grossly inadequate, too slow, ineffective, and in certain instances, illegal. AI claimed that in January 2018 alone, clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Ondo and Kaduna states, resulted in 168 deaths. According to the body, hundreds of people lost their lives in 2017 and the federal government remained unable to protect communities from the violent clashes, adding that perpetrators were daily getting away with murder.
2. Party crisis
If the All Progressives Congress (APC) members can’t put their own house in order, who will? The internal crisis rocking the ruling party is an impediment which could mar the chance of the party in the 2019 general elections. Although, President Muhammadu Buhari designated Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to resolve disagreements among party members, party leadership and political office holders in some states of the federation, but the crisis continues to deepen. If the APC leadership allows the crisis to hit a crescendo, then it should bid farewell to the presidency in 2019.
3. Unemployment
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s unemployment rate currently stands at 18.80 per cent. Year in year out the country is producing graduates that without producing employment opportunities. This and many other factors are responsible for different crimes that are plaguing us a nation. Nigerian youths are angry because they are jobless, and an angry youth would only try to change the status quo, as was the case with President Goodluck Jonathan when angry Nigerians chased him out of power.
4.Recession
In August 2016, Nigeria Nigeria slipped into recession. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the second quarter of 2016 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by -2.06 per cent. Many Economists attributed the recession to poor economic planning and inadequate concrete implementation of economic planning, high inflation rate; high-interest rate, high taxation, and policy conflict. Most significantly, it was attributed to the over-dependent of Nigeria government on oil for over 60% of its total revenues and the country for over 90% of her foreign exchange earnings. Nigerians were thrown into hardship during this period of recession as prices of commodities in the market skyrocketed. Even though the NBS announced in September 2017 that Nigerian economy was out of recession, the people of Nigeria are yet to feel the difference between the period the country slipped into recession and when it emerged from recession.
5.Insecurity
Insecurity is one of the major problems bedevilling Nigeria. Killings, suic*de bombing and kidnapping have become the order of the day in Nigeria. Many innocent lives have been lost to armed robbery and kidnapping, and the government has not been able to nip this menace in the bud, and many are asking if the government still remembers its constitutional function of protecting the lives and property of its citizens.
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