Nigeria Gears Up for Election Day
ASHER: Welcome back, everybody. Africa's largest democracy will vote for its next president on Saturday. The frontrunners in the race to lead Nigeria have similar backgrounds but actually very different views. The incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is a member of the APC or All Progressives Congress Party. His challenger Atiku Abubakar is a member of the PDP; the People's Democratic Party. He's a former vice president of the country and a multi- millionaire entrepreneur. More than 70 candidates are running for president. The vote comes at an important time for Nigeria which suffers - - continues to suffer from so much economic hardship. Wherever you are in the world, I want you to get out your phones right now and go to cnn.com-slash-join, tonight, we're asking you the question, what should Nigeria's top priority be? What should the next president of Nigeria really be focusing on? Should it be, "A", the economy, "B", security, "C", corruption or "D", poverty. So, the economy, security, corruption or poverty. What should the next leader, whoever it is between the two main candidates be focusing on? Just go to cnn.com-slash-join and vote now after I do my next interview, you end up seeing the results on your screen. Adebola Williams is a friend of mine and also the CEO of Red Africa, he's also the author of the book, "How to Win Elections in Africa". Adebola, my friend, good to see you.</s>ADEBOLA WILLIAMS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RED AFRICA: Hello, Zain, good to see you.</s>ASHER: OK, so, here's the thing. You worked on Buhari's first campaign and a lot of people credited you with helping in some way, shape or form get Buhari elected. How would you assess his first term? How has it gone for him so far?</s>WILLIAMS: It's been an interesting four years. But there is a consensus it would be that a lot more could have been done. I think that he's tried to do a lot of big ticket projects which might take a bit of time to see the full impact. The trains, the massive investments and agriculture amongst other things. But maybe on the side of the quick wings on the low-hanging fruits, there might be a bit more that could have been done. In terms of directly engaging the masses, especially the poor, I think he's done quite a number of initiatives, which is getting money into the hands of the poor. But what might be missing with that is the oiling of the private sector who also by itself automatically generate work and generate income --</s>ASHER: So --</s>WILLIAMS: To the masses as well --</s>ASHER: So Adebola, let me ask you this, let me ask you this, because Atiku has been very focused on the private sector. My question to you is, if an incumbent loses, like what happened with President Goodluck Jonathan, if an incumbent loses in Nigeria, what message does that end up sending to the Nigerian government?</s>WILLIAMS: I mean, I think if an incumbent loses again, you know, you would finally say to the Nigerian people that their vote counts, that their power you know, is indeed in their votes. We did it in 2015, repeating the same exercise in 2019 establishes that indeed, when the people rise, government must pay attention. And so, what that means is that whoever takes over, be the new guys, the Moghalus, the Fela Durotoyes, you know, or whoever takes over, you know, must pay attention to the voice of the people because indeed, perhaps, the voice of the people would be the voice of God.</s>ASHER: So, when you have a country like Nigeria that is so divided, you know, I mean, you and I have talked about the divisions between the various tribes and the various factions in Nigeria, how does the president, whether it's Buhari or Atiku. How does the president go about uniting the country, because that is -- for me personally as a Nigerian, that is a very important issue.</s>WILLIAMS: Very tough question, this -- Zain. This is a long-standing conversation. I've always said that beyond the surface, there is a lot of angst, a lot of pain from different regions in the country, and whoever takes over from here on or if it's a continuation, that person must be ready to deal with the differences, you know, of the different parts of the country. Restructuring is an issue that must come to the fore, you know, in the next four years. People want to spend their resources, people want to use their allocation by themselves, people want to know what exactly they bring to the table and be engaged based on what they bring to the table. I think that the Kagame model is something to also consider, Facing on our past problems like the Biafra issue that continue to rear its ugly head from every now and then, facing onto deaths in the north, you know, the fact that the people in Lagos or the west might be slightly disconnected from the deaths in the north. How do we together mourn these losses? How do we together look back on our problems and say, we will be united together, build a better nation. So a leader who will be bold enough to confront all of these differences and bring us together like Kagame has done with the genocide. And I would think that probably, you know, maybe the younger guys have been bold enough, you know, and to do this, the --</s>ASHER: All right --</s>WILLIAMS: The Felas, Moghalus, the Obis, you know, have been bold enough to take on such a challenge.</s>ASHER: All right, Adebola, good to see you my friend, I hope we can hang out next time I'm in Lagos.</s>WILLIAMS: I look forward to seeing you again.</s>ASHER: Thank you so much. Adebola actually threw me a party -- threw me a birthday party the last time I was in Lagos, so he's definitely good people. OK, so according to those of you who voted at cnn.com-slash-join, most of you actually say that corruption and the economy, corruption and the economy should be the president's top priorities. Obviously, that election happening in Nigeria tomorrow, Saturday, February 16th. Coming up, few would describe bitcoin as a stable investment, but for desperate Venezuelans struggling with the plunging currency, the cryptocurrency has actually become a haven from hyperinflation, that's next.