Top 2023 presidential candidates, All Progressives Congress’ (APC), Bola Tinubu and Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, have been reported to have a history with corruption and will most likely not raise it before the presidential election.

According to a Bloomberg report, the duo’s past records show that neither of them is free of corruption allegations.

“Front-runner Bola Tinubu, who secured the ruling party’s nomination earlier this month, was being investigated by the country’s anti-corruption agency as recently as last June. Three decades ago he fought a lawsuit in which the US government accused him of laundering the proceeds of heroin trafficking and eventually reached a settlement, the report says.

“Atiku Abubakar, his chief rival, brought tens of millions of dollars of “suspect funds” into the US when he was Nigeria’s vice president in the 2000s, according to a US Senate report, and was implicated in a bribery case that resulted in the imprisonment of an American congressman. Neither episode resulted in charges against Abubakar,” the report continues.

The report noted that Nigeria’s next president will face a daunting challenge to turn Africa’s largest economy around. 

It further noted that falling oil production threatens Nigeria’s place as the continent’s biggest crude producer.

The report talks about the poverty rate in Nigeria which has reached a tipping point.

Nigeria vies with India as the country with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty despite having a seventh of the population. Meanwhile, secessionists, Islamist militants and armed criminal gangs terrorise large swathes of territory.

Bloomberg

The history of Atiku and Tinubu go deeper than the Bloomberg report, but they also have supporters who are going to attempt to match claims and accusations with empty statements that many Nigerians seem to always buy.

But, as Bloomberg has reported, the duo won’t sell “kill corruption” in the agenda because their books appear to have chapters on corruption.