Nigeria: a bitter marketing campaign earlier than the presidential election

“Parkinson’s illness”, “stingy”, “corrupt”: the 2 principal presidential candidates in Nigeria ship a bitter finish to the marketing campaign, every calling for the arrest of the opposite by resurrecting outdated corruption scandals.

Nigerian politics is stricken by accusations of all types, particularly regarding darkish cash affairs. And the favourites for the presidential election on February 25 – Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, each extraordinarily rich septuagenarians, aren’t any exception: they’ve been repeatedly accused of corruption, which they firmly deny.

Greater than 93 million Nigerians shall be known as to the polls to elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who will not be operating after two phrases.

Africa’s most populous nation faces numerous challenges, specifically near-widespread insecurity, a extreme financial disaster, and spiralling inequalities. In latest weeks, because the marketing campaign intensifies, insults and accusations have flared between the candidates.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, candidate of the ruling get together (APC), thus accuses Atiku Abubakar, of the opposition (PDP), of getting “run a prison enterprise and constructed an empire via fraud” by “stealing public funds” between 1999 and 2007, when the latter was vice-president.

Mr. Tinubu, nicknamed “the Godfather” and even “the Boss” for his appreciable affect and wealth, calls on his opponent to “withdraw from the presidential race instantly” and “give up to the forces of the order”. He dubs Mr Abubakar “Mr I Promote The whole lot”, describing him as “able to get away with the takings” and calling him “corrupt”.

A US Senate investigation cites Mr Abubakar’s identify in a cash laundering case.

Between 2000 and 2008, considered one of his wives on the time, who has American nationality, allegedly “helped her husband repatriate greater than $40 million in suspicious funds to america by way of offshore accounts” . based on the report.

The couple can also be accused of getting acquired greater than 2 million {dollars} in fee for a contract with the multinational Siemens, which pleaded responsible on this case.

Scathing response from Atiku Abubakar camp rejecting APC ‘lies’ : Mr. Abubakar is blessed with ‘impeccable character and integrity’ … Not like his ‘narcotics-ravaged’ rival , a sentence stuffed with innuendo.

Mr. Tinubu is accused of getting, in his youth, when he was an accountant in america, laundered cash on behalf of an unlimited heroin trafficking community , which he denies.

At 70, the APC candidate, former governor of Lagos, has steadily been accused of corruption, with out ever being convicted. The “Atiku” crew can also be calling for the arrest of Mr. Tinubu, accused of getting ready an “military of bandits” to “undermine” the February 25 election.

Earlier than persevering with: “the candidate of the APC should endure from manifest Parkinson’s illness accompanied by incontinence” . Bola Tinubu “can not stand straight or climb (steps) with out assist, he suffers from seen tremor in his arms and throbs with the slightest bodily exertion” , they are saying.

The well being of presidential candidates is a delicate concern in Nigeria, the place President Buhari brought on a variety of speak by absenting himself for months throughout his first time period to hunt remedy in the UK for an unknown sickness.

Many subsequently marvel if Mr. Tinubu, as soon as elected, won’t even be absent due to his alleged state of well being and let his vice-president lead. The individual involved assures that he’s in good well being, as evidenced by his viral movies on the gymnasium or dancing.

Six weeks earlier than the presidential election, all photographs are thus allowed between the candidates who search to “discredit” their opponent, explains Udo Jude Ilo , analyst on the consulting agency Ideas and Mace Advisory. “The candidates, primarily from the APC and the PDP, are searching for to rally public opinion in opposition to one another ,” added Mr. Jude Ilo.

Peter Obi , the presidential underdog and Labor Celebration candidate, will not be spared both. Mr. Tinubu nicknames him “Mr. the stingy” , accusing him of not having spent sufficient on the inhabitants when he was governor of the state of Anambra (south-east). Nigeria “now wants stingy individuals who preserve the cash for the event of the nation”, retorted Mr Obi.

These invectives depart little room for the controversy of concepts despite the fact that the nation is going through immense challenges: inflation that exceeds 20%, practically 133 million folks affected by “multidimensional poverty” and the every day violence of prison teams. , jihadists and separatists.