Looking Ahead of 2023 Elections: How to Decide Who to Vote for And Not.

By Yusuf Nasir Ahmad. 

+2348145598212.

Naseeryusuf07@gmail.com

@YusufNasir_ahmd

According the 2022 Q1 data by the NBS, Nigeria's inflation currently stands at 17.71%. Unemployment rate stands at 33.33%. Underemployment rate stands at 22.8%. While youth unemployment stands at 42.5%.

The data claimed real GDG to have grown in the Q1 of 2022 by 3.11%. While a data from the Central Bank of Nigeria pegged FX rate at N415/$1.

With a population of over 200 million citizens, unemployment rate of more than 33% and youth unemployment rate of over 40%. Nigeria is like going to even face stiffer structural and cyclical unemployment in the coming years.

Recently, the CBN sound an alarm of capital flight from Nigeria. According to them, from 1986 to 2015 alone, over $8.8trn have been lost to capital flight.

Our Balance of Payment, which of course is the records of aggregate international trade and financial transactions between Nigeria and the rest of the world, in the first quarter of 2020 hit -$11.182bn, according to data from CBN. We have been running BoP deficit for the past 25 quarters. 

Instead of indulging our cognizance into the lense of religious biases of the said contenders,  we should rather be asking the following questions:

1- What can any contender do to prevent jobs from being lost to insecurity in the country. 

2- What can these contenders do to create enough new jobs to employ youths off the labour market. 

3- What policies do these contenders have to slow down inflation?

4- Is the rate at which Naira is exchanging per dollar acceptable? If no, what can we do about it?

5- How do we plan to secure our country from the beasts lying in ambush as we travel across our highways?

6- When are we going to ever have surplus or at least equilibrium Balance of Payment?

I think, these and many more questions, should be our focus of the day. We shouldn't just seek the truth buy asking these significant questions, rather we should follow closely and meticulously their responses and examine how realistic their camping propaganda is. Then we can say, ah, this is who have realistic responses to these critical questions. Therefore, this is who I will vote for.