Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has declared that Nigeria’s next president to be elected in the February 25, 2023 elections would have many challenges to contend with.
She argued that there won’t be quick fixes for the myriads of problems besetting the country as some presidential candidates are trying to make it sound.
Speaking on national television on Tuesday which was monitored by our correspondent in Lagos, Ezekwesili tasked presidential candidates who are campaigning now across the country to tell Nigerians the truth about the state of the nation, instead of promising immediate results.
Ezekwesili argued that there won’t be any magic wand that any of the presidential candidates would apply that would yield immediate results. She insisted that the level of rot and decay in the system is grossly understated.
“Candidates who are running for elections must tell the electorate the bitter truth. The bitter truth is that the country is not in a place for any president to immediately deliver results.
“What matters is that you have a president who understands the problems that need to be solved and has an idea of how to go about solving them.
“Any candidate who is promising instant results after the 2023 elections is not being fair to you. So, it is important that we understand that citizens must be ready for the work ahead because it is going to require everybody working together to make this happen,” she stressed.
The 2023 general elections begin with the presidential and National Assembly polls on February 25.
The leading four candidates of All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu; Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar; Labour Party’s Peter Obi and New Nigeria Peoples Party’s Musa Kwankwaso, have all promised Nigerians in their various manifestos to tackle the numerous problems facing the country.
They include insecurity, banditry, insurgency, disunity and disaffection among the citizenry, economic woes and stagnation that has turned Nigeria to the poverty capital of the world, social dislocations leading to mass exodus of young and talented individuals out of the country and many more.
