2023 Elections: Why Other Presidential Candidates Shouldn't Dismiss Fitch’s Report Predicting Tinubu’s Victory

• Ogoegbunam Kingdom, a youth and women development advocate, has reacted to the Fitch report, which predicted Tinubu's victory in 2023
• The director of the Platform for Youth and Women Development advised other contenders in the poll not to dismiss the report
• Mr Kingdom also revealed a likely reason why the report predicted that the APC presidential candidate will defeat his rivals

FCT, Abuja - Ogoegbunam Kingdom, a youth and women development advocate, has advised presidential candidates in the 2023 general election against dismissing the Fitch report, which predicted victory for the APC’s standard bearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

A Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research report released on Thursday, October 27, predicted victory for Tinubu and added that it would lead to protests and social instability in Nigeria.

Fitch report: How PDP, Labour Party reacted

In his reaction, the chief spokesperson for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, played down the authenticity of Fitch's electoral projection.

He expressed confidence that the LP presidential flag bearer, Peter Obi, would sweep the votes at the poll.

According to him, the report does not reflect what will go down in the 2023 presidential election.

The spokesman for the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, also said his party refused to accept the prediction by the Fitch Ratings.

“We don’t work with rhetoric, we don’t work with polls; the PDP works with the people. But the polls have even said it all that the man, Tinubu, cannot be a good president,” The Punch quoted Ologunagba as saying.

Don’t dismiss Fitch report, youth advocate warns

Reacting, Ogoegbunam Kingdom, the executive director of the Platform for Youth and Women Development, said Fitch Ratings is a reputable platform, and other presidential candidates should not dismiss its projection.

According to him, “polls, if accurately placed, can predict the outcome of an election.”

“Recall during the 2016 elections, the polls placed US Sec. Mrs Hilary Clinton ahead of Donald Trump, and although Trump won the election, the majority of votes cast were for Mrs Clinton. Trump only won due to the electoral college.

“So polls are good indicators and should not be dismissed by any candidate in any election," Mr Kingdom told Legit.ng.

He noted that the contenders should critically examine the points raised in the report.

Possible reason why Fitch predicted Tinubu’s victory

Speaking further, Mr Kingdom said Fitch may have predicted victory for Tinubu because of southerners’ protest against a northern candidate (PDP’s Atiku Abubakar) succeeding another northerner (President Muhammadu Buhari).

Nevertheless, the youth advocate said the prediction might not come to pass because many Nigerians may not be ready to accept a Muslim-Muslim ticket “because of the unending killing of Christians and attacks on prominent churches in Nigeria.”

Citing another reason why the poll may not come to pass, Mr Kingdom said the APC government has performed woefully since it took over in 2015.

Fitch report: Tinubu has capacity to manage social instability, says Obidike

Meanwhile, Obidike Chukwuebuka, the Director General of the Conference of APC Support Groups, said Fitch’s prediction of Tinubu’s victory is a welcome development.

Speaking on the Fitch report’s prediction of social instability, Obidike said there is no government without instability.

He, however, said Tinubu has the capacity to deal with instability if elected the country’s president in 2023.

Source: Legit.ng