2019: Legit Poll shows most important issue Nigerians want presidential candidates to address during campaigns
With about 53 days to the 2019 general elections, political parties and their candidates have fully started their campaigns; all coming up with series of promises, citing various reasons why they should be considered by Nigerians in 2019.
Both the two major presidential candidates, President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Parties (PDP) have launched their campaigns.
While Atiku and the PDP have been campaigning from one geopolitical zone to the other, Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo (who is also President Buhari’s running mate) has also kick-started his door-to-door campaign, moving from one household to the other to give reasons why the Buhari presidency should be re-elected.
Other presidential candidates in the 2019 elections have also been up and running telling Nigerians why they should be elected.
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Amidst all the multifaceted issues confronting the country, Legit.ng picks the two that seem to occupy the front seat - Security and unemployment – and ask Nigerians which one they think the presidential candidates should address in their campaigns.
Security
Upon his ascension to power in 2015, President Buhari promised to tackle the security challenges; and hopes were high.
Three years into his administration, the president claimed the Boko Haram terrorists had been technically defeated; 17 local governments occupied by the terrorists had been reclaimed.
It thus appeared the Buhari-led government was winning the insurgency war until recently when the insurgents resurged carrying out a major attack that claimed lives of scores of Nigerian soldiers. The age-long herdsmen crisis and kidnappings also escalated.
Thus, how to restore security and order in the country still remains a major issue to contend with.
Unemployment
President Buhari also promised to revamp the economy by coming up with a strong anti-corruption fight.
However, around August 2016, Nigeria slipped into recession. The nation’s major source of revenue, oil, was hit by weaker global prices, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The price of oil fell from highs of about $112 a barrel in 2014 to below $50 in 2016.
Though the economy has exited recession, the country has not fully recovered from the effect of the economic woe.
For instance, the NBS recently announced that the country's unemployment rate had risen from 18.1% to 23.1%.
The statistician-general of the federation and chief executive officer of NBS, Dr Yemi Kale, made the disclosure on his Twitter page on Wednesday, December 19.
Thus, what to do to get rid of unemployment is also one of the major issues to focus on as political parties and their presidential candidates take their campaigns from one part of the country to the other.
But which, between these two important issues, should the presidential candidates focus more on during their campaigns? Nigerians share their opinions on this in a poll conducted by Legit.ng on Facebook and Twitter.
Out of 715 users that participated in the poll on Facebook, 68% consider unemployment as the number one issue the presidential candidates should address while 32% opt for security.
The situation is similar on Twitter: while 65% consider unemployment as the most important issue to address, 35% opt for security.
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In a previous poll conducted by Legit.ng, 85% of Nigerians believe the country is not ready for a female president, with only 15% saying the country is ready.
The result of the poll shows that as the 2019 elections draw nearer, there are no indications that things may get better in terms of women participation in the nation’s politics.
The most popular female presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Oby Ezekwezili, contesting on the platform of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) is already facing acceptability issue, considering the poll's result.
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Source: Legit.ng
