3 possible reasons why Nigerians voted for an older man as President

Posted by Felix Okoli on Friday October 7, 2016 at 14:20:2:

Looking back at the 2015 Presidential election held in Nigeria, one thing that was really obvious was that many Nigerians voted for an older man as President. It has become the first time in Nigeria's history when a man over 70 years of would be elected President.

Comparing 2 main Presidential candidates that we had running for the number 1 post, Buhari was the older man and he won an election on the platform of a relatively new opposition party in 2015.

Considering the fact that majority of Nigerian voters are young people within the ages of 25 and 60, one would wonder why they voted for an old man as President.

Some of the possible reasons why they did so could include the following:

1. They wanted change:
It seems that the normal thing in Nigeria is for people to opt for change if they can have it and that's what they showed in 2015 when they voted for the ruling party to step down and a new party to take over power. It seems people wanted to have something new and different that would improve their lives rather than continuing with the old way which seemed not to be favouring them

2. They wanted better security:
Prior to the 2015 general election, one of the things which made the sitting President and ruling party a bit weak and unpopular in the North was because of the violent killings and kidnappings done by Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group that wanted to Islamize Nigeria by force. The terrorists killed a lot of people and cities burned while it appeared that the government could not stop them. While it wasn't entirely the fault of the sitting President given the nature of how terrorists operate, it made him loose public support from many northern states and so there was a growing opposition to the ruling government which was eventually removed by a democratic election. Mr Buhari seemed a more favourable candidate since he was from the north and was a retired military general. Since he was more likely to win, other politicians supported him and he won.

3. The Inter-tribal deal:
One of the things that made majority of Nigerians to vote for Buhari and the APC was because the political arrangement which brought them into prominence and power was based on an inter-tribal deal between 2 of the 3 major tribes in Nigeria namely the Yorubas and the Hausas/Fulanis. A good majority of politicians from Yoruba states in the South West led by Bola Tinubu joined hands with politicians from Northern Nigeria such as Atiku Abubakar and Saraki. The South West was in the hands of the AC while the North was mostly in the hands of the CPC and ANPP. The merge of those 3 political parties helped form a stronger and more formidable party that was able to defeat the ruling PDP.