Aminu Tambuwal, a state governor normally too bland to attract much attention, is running for president of Nigeria. Like a dozen other serving and former governors, a senate president and a former vice-president, Mr Tambuwal said he was bowing to the demands of the people, who apparently wanted him to defect to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and challenge the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, in an election that is scheduled for February. Many Nigerians felt a sense of déjà vu. Four years ago, Mr Tambuwal was one of a number of bigwigs who deserted the PDP and helped propel Mr Buhari (pictured above) to victory.

Government may be a shambles in Nigeria, but politics is thriving. In the election in 2015 one government agency is alleged to have diverted more than a $1bn intended for the fight against jihadist groups in the north-east to fund the electoral campaigns of ruling-party politicians. Private donors supporting Goodluck Jonathan, the previous president, paid the disgraced (and now defunct) British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to produce extraordinarily inflammatory social-media campaigns showing people being hacked to death or burned alive and claiming that Mr Buhari would impose sharia, or Islamic law, if he were elected.

Many of the international political consulting and public-relations firms that coined it in 2015 are again seen trailing their candidates through the lobbies of hotels in Abuja and London. The flacks are as fickle as the Big Men they serve. Some lobbyists are now working for the very people they sought to trash last time.

They will have their work cut out, no matter which politicians are writing their paycheques. Start with Mr Buhari, who faces a surprisingly tough contest for reelection given the widespread euphoria that greeted the start of his first term. He came to power after promising to end a jihadist insurgency, diversify the economy from oil and reduce corruption.

Mr Buhari’s popularity has since dipped, not least because he spent much of 2017 in London receiving medical treatment. Although Nigeria’s army made gains against jihadists in his first few months in office, it has since become bogged down. Soldiers guard towns and patrol the roads, but insurgents still rule the countryside.

Government Might Be Shambles In Nigeria, But Politics Is Thriving As Race To Be President Begun

Ordinary voters are also angry that Mr Buhari appears to have made slow progress in curbing corruption. Some businessmen, particularly those used to getting juicy government contracts that involved little work but lots of money, complain that he has been too successful at curbing graft.

If Mr Buhari is a hard sell to voters, so too are his main rivals. Bukola Saraki, the senate president, was educated at a posh British private school and the London Hospital Medical College. He thinks he knows what ails Nigeria: he has a 19-point programme to save the country and insists he would lead “a dynamic government of action” that would not conduct “business as usual”. Sadly, his tenure as president of the senate showed little of this promise. It was marked by allegations of corruption, which he dismisses as smears by rivals. The flagship oil-reform bill that he shepherded was returned first by his own legal department and then by the presidency because it contained dozens of errors, inconsistencies and contradictions. A bill supposedly intended to encourage investment in, and root out corruption from, the industry that generates almost all of Nigeria’s exports turned out to be one that would have increased the scope for political meddling.

Yet Mr Saraki’s prospects were given an unexpected boost when Lawal Daura, the head of the State Security Service, sent armed officers in ski masks to the National Assembly as part of a bungled and in any case pointless plot to remove Mr Saraki from office. Mr Daura was immediately sacked, but the sight of armed troops surrounding a building that symbolises Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999 raised uncomfortable memories of its years of military rule, including a stint under Mr Buhari, then a general.

Mr Buhari, for his part, is being feted by foreign leaders. He was in China this week, where members of his staff were pushing their hosts to begin work on key road, rail and other infrastructure projects, including a hydroelectric dam in Mambila that was first mooted 30 years ago. He has also played host in recent months to Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, and Theresa May, the British prime minister. Yet the red carpets and honour guards have done little to boost his popularity at home. Voters are losing interest in mainstream politicians and parties. Turnout in recent by-elections has been low and there is not much excitement on the street about the presidential election next year.

In a rare recent newspaper article, Mr Buhari’s taciturn but influential chief of staff, Abba Kyari, extolled progress the government had made in improving security and diversifying the economy. Mr Kyari appealed to Nigerians to ignore the slick campaigns peddled by political consultants and “not [to] be fooled by the packaging” but to look at what is inside it. The real challenge may be to get them to look at all.

Government Might Be Shambles In Nigeria, But Politics Is Thriving As Race To Be President Begun

The Economist failed to mention that poor state of the economy which is his Achilles heel.

His economic policies made things far worse than they could ever be.

Overall growth rate has not been more than 1% yearly. This is just too poor