Nigeria’s highly anticipated 2019 presidential election will finally be happening on Saturday February 16th. And from several indications, many people want the incumbent President to lose; including some foreign investors.
Analysts at Citigroup believe that some foreign investors want President Muhammadu Buhari to lose the election this Saturday. This would enable his main opponent, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to take over and hopefully revamp the economy.
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President Buhari’s possible loss at the polls this weekend is also expected to help the Stock Market to rally, according to the Analysts.
Note that the Nigerian Stock Market has been underperforming since President Buhari took over the country’s affairs in 2015. His possible loss could end this trend.While foreign investors are not the ones to decide who gets to govern the country over the next four years, their presence and contributions (through Foreign Portfolio Investments) to the Nigerian economy are indispensable. For this reason, they too can be classified as stakeholders.
In the meantime, however, some of the actual stakeholders (i.e., the electorates) are undecided about which of the two main candidates to choose.
Just yesterday, President Buhari was allegedly booed by spectators in Abeokuta during a rally. This happened just a few days after many electorates in Lagos were angered by the fact that some notorious, traffic-causing vehicles were temporarily cleared off major roads for the President’s visit.
There have also been talks about President Buhari’s inability to proffer solution to the country’s economic challenges.
But the main opposition candidate, Mr Abubakar, isn’t the perfect choice either. Some of the economic agendas so far disclosed by him have been perceived as outrageous.Moreover, the presidential hopeful has been immersed in some corruption scandals.
As Nigerians prepare to elect their future President on February 16th, there are possibilities that either one of the two main candidates can emerge victorious. But no matter who among the two eventually wins, they may not be the right choice to lead the country out of ots economic and political difficulties.
Source: Emmanuel Abara Benson/Nnairametrics
