"NIGERIANS DECIDE THEIR POLITICAL DESTINY TODAY"

'General Muhammadu Buhari versus President Goodluck Jonathan"

Tens of millions of Nigerians will be voting today in the most important presidential election in the history of that country. Firstly, this is the first time in the presidential politics and election in Nigeria that the reelection of an incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan is directly threatened by a formidable candidate in the person of General Muhammadu Buhari and by a unified and a widespread opposition political party, the APC.

Secondly, this is also the first time in the presidential election in Nigeria that the main opposition presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari will be running for the fourth time in the presidential election in his attempt to become the President of Nigeria, the same way that the former Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wada did in Senegal and then won the presidency as the main opposition figure.

Thirdly, Nigerian voters will be deciding today between these two candidates that represent two different visions for that country. The incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan has failed woefully to effectively address the issues of chronic official corruption and mammoth resource mismanagement in the governance of that country as well as the deadly Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East of Nigeria that has now killed over 15,000 Nigerians and internally displaced another one million other Nigerians. These all happened under his watch and presidency.

President Goodluck Jonathan has also failed in the area of economy despite the fact that he enjoyed the highest oil boom in the governance of Nigeria and the biggest inflow of the petro-dollar that lasted for almost four years uninterrupted. The Nigerian foreign reserves and excess crude oil accounts are almost gone today. The Naira is at its lowest value in its history. The nation's foreign debt and borrowing are rapidly rising again. The youth unemployment has reached its highest level in decades, the national infrastructures are still outdated and Nigerians do not enjoy the constant supply of electricity, good and affordable health care, functioning public education as well as efficient social services.

On the other hand,  General Muhammadu Buhari has the history and the reputation of publicly fighting the menace of official corruption, resource mismanagement and religious insurgency in Nigeria. He did all these things as the military ruler of Nigeria for those 20 months that he was in power between 1984 and 1985. General Buhari also campaigned across the length and the breadth of Nigeria promising to end official corruption, Boko Haram insurgency, to create jobs and to build a national economy that will work fairly for all Nigerians without leaving tens of millions of Nigerians behind.

The political stakes in this election are so high that the future of Nigeria as a nation depends on its outcome. The whole world is watching Nigeria today and hoping that her democracy will not fail. Nigeria now has the largest economy and population in Africa. The global expectation is that this presidential election will not be stolen and it will be allowed to be free, fair, transparent, credible, all-inclusive and violent-free.