Nigeria's reputation for writing letter of credit (L/C) business in international trade is featuring in the country's presidential election campaign.

On 14 February 2015, Nigerians are due to go to the polls, in which incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan is expected to stand once more for the presidency.

Age issue

One of Jonathan's opponents is former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, who said in December that he would stand for the presidency for the All Progressives Congress (APC) party.

But his opponents say that, at 73 years old, he is too old for the job and that his economic management when he was in power isolated Nigeria from the international trading community.

Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, who is a member of Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party, points out that Buhari is five years older than Ronald Reagan was when, at 68 years old, he was elected the oldest ever US president.

Economic management

Buhari came to power 31 years ago after leading a coup d'état to remove the democratically elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

The coup is widely viewed as one of Buhari's greatest achievements, even by political opponents such as Obi.

Disastrous policies

He says the former head of state's economic policies were disastrous as Nigeria, "nearly turned into a pariah nation that no one wanted to deal with globally."

"At the time, under the Buhari's government, confirmed L/Cs were rejected, because no one wanted to deal with Nigeria," Obi added.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.