Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is the preferred candidate of Nigerians to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s next president in 2023, according to a recent nationwide survey carried out by the Intellectual Forum on Politics and Governance (IFP&G).
“Analysis of the results clearly indicated that Osinbajo was the citizens choice for the next president of the federation,” the group said in a statement signed by its deputy chairman, Prof. Nasiru M. Yauri; organising secretary, Prof. Yahaya T. Baba and member (South East), Prof. Ike E. Ogba.
Yauri has specialisation in economics, management and international finance. Baba has specialisation in comparative political institutions, while Ogba specialises in marketing, business strategy, consumer and organisational behaviour.
The statement added that the group was established to support the critical analysis of various issues related to national development.
Nigerians were asked to choose their favourite among Osinbajo; former Lagos State governor and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; a former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso; and former vice president, Abubakar Atiku.
Although, some other prominent politicians have since declared their intention to contest the presidency in 2023, the group stated that Osinbajo, Tinubu, Kwankwaso and Atiku were selected on the basis of politicians who were most likely to make a bid for the presidency at the time the survey was designed.
Other politicians, who have since declared their bid to run for president include a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi; River State Governor Nyesom Wike, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, former Governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo West, Rochas Okorocha, Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State; former Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun; former Abia State Governor and Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Kalu, among others.
Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State is reportedly going to declare, officially, to join the race for president after Ramadan.
The IFP&G poll result was based on the balanced random sample of 12,000 names selected from a database of registered voters, with respondents spread across states of the federation and all six geopolitical zones fully represented.
Apart from leading the final poll, as the citizens’ choice for next president, the result analysis showed that Osinbajo polled almost twice more that the nearest challenger, with 42.50 per cent of respondents selecting the Vice President as their preferred choice, and 25.51 per cent selecting Abubakar Atiku as their preferred choice.
The result showed that 18.07 per cent selected Rabiu Kwankwaso and 13.92 per cent of the respondents selected Bola Tinubu as their preferred candidate.
The group noted: “It can be argued that if Bola Tinubu was not one of the selected candidates in this survey, the likelihood is that Osinbajo would have picked up most of the votes, that is the 13.92 per cent who voted for Bola Tinubu, taking him well over the 50 per cent mark, which is enough to win any election going by past records of elections in Nigeria.”
