October 29, (THEWILL) – A global credit rating agency, Fitch Solutions, has projected Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as the most likely candidate to win the 2023 presidential election.
The prediction was contained in Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research report released on Thursday.
The research observed that the credibility of a previous opinion poll, which put Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), ahead of Tinubu and other candidates, was impaired by the fact that they were conducted online.
According to Fitch, the surveys were not all-encompassing because going by World Bank records, only 36 percent of Nigerians use the online space and access.
It added that the limited use of online space limits its spread among those to decide the winner of the election, therefore, the surveys were not widespread and were unreliable.
The report said: “Indeed, we maintain our view that the ruling party’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the candidate most likely to win the presidential election as a split opposition vote will favour the APC.
“Surveys showing that Obi is ahead of his opponents, Bola Tinubu (APC) and Atiku Abubakar (PDP), were mostly based on responses gathered online. Since only 36.0% of Nigerians use the Internet (World Bank, 2020), we believe that these results are skewed towards urban, affluent voters, who are most likely to support Obi. We also highlight that these polls suggest that a large share of voters remain undecided.”
In the report, Fitch said Obi lacked support in the Muslim North, where the majority of the voters are located and where also turn out on elections were higher than other parts of the country.
It added that since the 1999 Constitution provides for a candidate scoring the highest number of votes, as well as securing 25 percent of votes in at least 24 states of the federation, it would be “herculean for the Labour Party, which lacks structure and not having candidates for most of the positions for state Assemblies, House of Representatives, Senate and governorship, to deliver above those that have stakes for such positions.
“Furthermore, the northern electorate historically tends to vote for presidential candidates from their region. With Obi being a Christian from the South (Anambra State), increasing his voter share in the North will prove challenging.
“While we believe Obi is unlikely to win the election, he will probably do well for a third-party candidate. Indeed, a third-party candidate has never reached more than 7.5% of votes in Nigeria. However, due to his frugal reputation and large social media following, we expect Obi to get a higher share of the vote than previous third-party candidates.
“As such, we believe that Obi’s popularity will most likely split the opposition vote, at the expense of the PDP. The PDP’s candidate (Atiku Abubakar) is a Northerner and we believe that the party’s only route to victory is expanding its vote in the South-west and North-central states, while retaining large majorities in the South-south and South-east.
“However, given Obi’s popularity in the south – especially the South-south and South-east – we believe it is unlikely the main opposition party will be able to gain more votes in these parts of the country. Indeed, we maintain our view that the APC’s Tinubu is best placed to win the presidential election. We expect that the party, which has nominated a Muslim-Muslim ticket, will repeat its strong performance in the North. Given that Tinubu is a former governor of Lagos, the party is also likely to improve on its performance in the South-west. Furthermore, we expect Tinubu to benefit from incumbency advantages, with the APC having been in power since 2015.”
The report, however, expressed doubt if Tinubu will end the petrol subsidy regime due to what it called the appetite of the ruling APC for the free money that accrues from the subsidy.
“We do not expect significant policy changes under a Tinubu presidency. While Tinubu has stated that he would phase out Nigeria’s costly fuel subsidy, we are skeptical that this will happen in the short term. There appears to be limited appetite within the APC to remove the subsidy, and with inflation remaining elevated in 2023 – due to high food prices – the cancellation of the subsidy would negatively affect the new president’s popularity.
“Indeed, the PDP tried to remove the subsidy in 2012, but had to back down after large-scale protests. In addition, we believe that Tinubu’s aim to raise oil production is unfeasible in the short term. Crude production has declined significantly to 1.1million barrels per day in September – a multi-decade low – due to rising oil theft and previous underinvestment. Given the country’s weak fiscal position, we believe that there will be limited room for more security and social spending to combat oil theft and attract more investment”, it added.
Possible factors that could hinder Tinubu’s Presidency, according to Fitch, include concerns over his health. The report, however, predicted the possibility of a run up election. It said: “There remains a possibility that a three-way race results in no candidate passing the electoral threshold. This would prompt a second round for the first time in Nigerian history, likely heightening political instability.”
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