2023: We Don’t Have Any Ideal Candidate -Odinkalu

The former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, has said Nigerians cannot afford to make the same mistake they made in previous elections in next year’s elections.
Speaking on a live Television programme, Odinkalu described the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration as a calamity that took the nation several years backward.
According to  Odinkalu: “2023 is not a contest between good and evil. If democratic politics is between good and evil, it will be very easy. The reality is, it is between flawed human beings, imperfect choices and that is what makes it very exciting and difficult. Sadly, that is what we are confronted with in 2023. We don’t have any perfect or ideal candidates who are before us and one of them will be the president, May 29, next year.”
Asked if Nigeria can afford mistakes this time around, Odinkalu said: “I don’t think we can, I hate to say this, but President Muhammadu Buhari has been a huge calamity. He has been a tragic calamity. The reality is that he actually fulfilled his promise. He promised the country change and he delivered the change. The change he delivered has taken the country back, if not two generations backward, four generations back.
“When Buhari took over power in 2015, Nigeria had about 12million out of school children, according to UNESCO today, Nigeria has about 22.3million out of school children today.
“Essentially he’s grown out of school children year on year by about 1.5million during a seven year tenure. Pause and think about what that means in the next 15 to 20 years from now. We are dealing with radicalisation and insurgency across the board. Think what 22million gives you: radicalisation. And pause for a second, contemplate the consequences ….”