By Oke Godwin Olaoluwa
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP Presidential candidate and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC Presidential flag bearer
Going by public expectation, any of the candidate of the two leading political parties is projected to win the presidency race. The presidency seat is about to go right in 2023
Atiku abubakar, the presidential flagbearer of the PDP, was a former vice president who oversaw the privatisation of some government enterprise. He also supervised the deregulation of the telecom sector. He is also an astute entrepreneur with business interest spanning across different sectors of the economy. In his agenda, he has never hidden the fact that he will run a private sector led government.
Asiwaju bola ahmed, the presidential candidate of the APC, was a board room guru, he has cognate experience in the corporate world across sectors like accounting and oil and gas. He was a former governor of lagos state, known popularly as the pilot of modern Lagos. He intiated one of the most ambitious private sector driven real estate development in africa. Lagos is the commercial hub and the financial capital of Africa.
President Muhammed Buhari ideology tilts more to the left, an ideology he has publicly acknowledged. He ran a populist government, from FX restrictions, to ban on importation of certain items, to border closure and retaining fuel subsidy. Buhari’s government is probably the highest spender on social protection and welfare programmes since 1999, to the extent that the government dedicated a full ministry for such purpose.
The presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was a strong advocate of fiscal federalism and his manifesto is expected to include devolution of powers to other organs of government.
Atiku abubakar in his economic agenda promises to fully deregulate the oil and gas sector, privatize some government enterprise and shedding some of the powers of the federal government to the state and local government.
The presidential candidates of the two leading political parties are likely to run a market driven economy. They will likely adopt the IMF suggestion of market driven FX market, subsidy removal and a more open economy. The both candidates are strong advocate of fiscal federalism and restructuring, described as the most widely acceptable solutions to our economic quagmire.
Oke Godwin OlaOluwa, an economist writes from Ikorodu.
