Presidential elections are currently taking place in Nigeria, and whatever happens, the most peopled country in Africa (213 million inhabitants) will have a brand new president in the next few days: as a matter of fact, outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari, 80 years old, cannot get a third presidential term of office since the constitution is allowing two mandates only.
As a consequence, the new Nigerian president will be unexperimented as a ruler of the State: four candidates are considered as favorites among the eighteen ones. Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos, Atiku Abubakar who will try to get the presidential chair for the sixth time in his political life, Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor as well, and Peter Obi who used to run the Anambra state.
Nigeria is going to be the third most peopled country in the world by 2050, and a bunch of questions and issues will have to be tackled by the new president who may be one of the four ones we have mentioned above: the economic crisis and lack of liquidities, violence proliferating (Boko Haram is not the only one to blame) and poverty that undermines the population (more than half of the Nigerian population is living with less than 1,90 dollar per day).
The ballot was held peacefully today in spite of a few logistical issues and safety incidents, and the electoral commission is expected to give the final results within five days (even though they have fourteen days to do so).
94 million electors are expected for the presidential ballot, but abstention will be analyzed carefully in a country where 39% of the electors are less than 35 years old. Nigeria is the first economy of Africa, but a lot of problems still need to be solved as explained earlier, and the freshly elected president will have much to do.