The United Kingdom High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, says there is no striking difference between the manifestoes of Nigeria’s four leading presidential candidates, especially in the area of policy.
She also said her country’s government is not backing any of the 18 presidential candidates and is ready to work with any of them that emerge president in the 25 February election.
Ms Laing stated this during an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday.
Although there are 18 political parties in the race, the 2023 presidential election is shaping to be a four-horse race between the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
The four leading candidates have released their manifestoes.
Mr Tinubu has the “Renewed Hope 23”, while Mr Atiku released a manifesto titled “My Covenant with Nigeria”. For Mr Obi, he is counting on his “Our Pact with Nigeria” while Mr Kwanwaso released “My Pledges To You”.
Ms Laing said observers are buoyed by the pledge of the candidates to take some hard decisions on the economy because there is a nexus between economy and security.
“They have all published their manifestoes. What is quite striking is how similar they are. I did not see huge policy differences among the big four. They have all told us how important it is to take those difficult policy decisions. But are there differences? In terms of policies, I did not see much differences.
