As campaigns commence, the issues that matter

The  campaigns for the 2027 general election have commenced, with the presidential and National Assembly schedule kicking off on Wednesday, August 19. The Independent National Electoral Commission’s official timetable, slates the governorship and state assembly campaignsto begin on September 9. But with posters at strategic junctions across the states and strategic appearances on media platforms, the candidates for the various offices, are already in the field, marketing themselves and their programmes. They camouflage their outings as consultations but, practically, the campaigns have taken off. There is nothing wrong in that, ordinarily.

Even in more advanced climes, politics comes with presence and grandstanding. But beneath the glamour are the issues that matter. When elections are, therefore, described as celebration of democracy, the expression underscores the importance of the ballot in the leadership recruitment process. This is the challenge before Nigerians as the politicians roll out their campaigns.

The commencement of the campaigns should afford the electorate the opportunity to engage the flag-bearers and interrogate their agenda against the backdrop of their antecedents. A major factor that the voters need to take into serious consideration in assessing the presidential candidates, especially of the three leading political parties, President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Peter Obi of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), is that they are known figures that do not require rigorous introduction or embellishment.

There are other candidates but the three are the stars of the contest. They are not new in the field, having crossed swords in 2023 poll. While Obi is fully in the ring, demanding a change in the country’s leadership template through a focused shift from consumption to production, Atiku is stepping out gradually but steadily hitting at the President on his fleeting economic programmes and presenting himself as a better alternative. Tinubu is, in his usual reticence, pushing out proxies to do his battle. In the process, occasional jabs are being thrown at one another by the contestants, while topics as religion and ethnicity that are not relevant in repositioning the country are being thrown up as factors in wooing the voters. This should not be the case, ideally. But that shows the extent the Nigerian political culture has been reduced to.      

More than the trivial considerations of religious affinity and ethnic affiliations, conversations on 2027 presidency should centre on characters of the aspirants, their capabilities and preparations for the office. Peter Obi of the NDC is apt in arguing that this moment gives Nigerians the opportunity to assess the records, ideas and plans of those seeking their mandate to lead their country at a time of grave uncertainty in our rapidly changing world. The argument is unassailable.  Truth be told, Nigeria, is currently on its fours and needs a leader with the vision and verve to bring it back. Karl Meier, erstwhile West African correspondent of the Independent of London, could not have chosen a better title for his book on Nigeria than, “This House Has Fallen”. The facts are there to substantiate the claim. 

Current estimates of Nigeria’s poverty indexes by both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are disturbing. According to the IMF, 63%, or over 140 million Nigerians, live at or below the national poverty line, while humanitarian agencies estimate that 35 million people will need food assistance during the 2026 lean season. About 3.6 million Nigerians remain internally displaced, largely because of conflict and insecurity. In a similar pathetic picture, figures from the NBS, indicated that 40.1% of Nigeria’s population lived below the national absolute poverty line, meaning about 82.9 million Nigerians were classified as poor. These summaries are unflattering and signify rising rate of hunger and poverty in the country.

The situation is worsened by weak infrastructure, unreliable power, insecurity, and the excessive cost of doing business which continue to mount pressure on households and constrain enterprise. In addition, insecurity has displaced millions of Nigerians and continues to disrupt agriculture, education, trade, and investment.

At the heart of it all is leadership failure and prebendal political elite that the present administration in the land has provided a haven. Literary icon, Chinua Achebe, saw it back in ‘The trouble with Nigeria’, that “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely the failure of leadership… The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership”.  Daren Acemoglu and James Robinson, concurred in, ‘Why Nations Fail’, that the most common reasons why nations fail is because of parasitic political and economic classes. Nigeria has had this extractive elite over the years. For them, what matters is what they derive from the system, not what they add to it. This is the time to halt the slide.

2027 election is therefore more than an exercise in evoking ethnic or religious sentiments. It is not an occasion to play to the gallery. It is a defining moment for Nigeria’s democracy. The critical questions should be: Are Nigerians better off than they were four years ago? Can they afford food, education, and healthcare? Can businesses produce, expand, and create jobs? Can young people find productive work? Can farmers work safely and get their produce to market? These are the issues that matter, as the campaigns gather steam.

In seeking solutions to the challenges facing the nation, the voters must know and be able to assess those who seek to govern them. 2027 election should not be reduced to a proxy exercise in which aides and appointees who know next to nothing about governance and administration would be pushed out to speak for any of the candidates. That was the mistake of 2023; the mistake Nigerians made in not adequately interrogating the capabilities of Tinubu and the contradictions that catapulted him to power, for which the country is paying dearly. Such crass oversight must not be repeated in the January 16, 2027 presidential election. The flag bearers need to be reminded that the presidency is not a prize to win but a duty to do. Any of the candidates, particularly, Tinubu, Atiku and Obi who is not adequately strong and mentally equipped for the pressures of the presidency, should leave the field for others. Thirty-third President of the United States (US), Harry Truman captured it in, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Aso Rock Villa cannot be reduced to a retiring home for tired limbs.

It is not enough for the people to be treated with few packs of pastries and miserable amounts of money to sell their votes and turn against their fellow struggling citizens. That would amount to further debasement of their persons and essence. Having been sufficiently misgoverned, the campaign season provides the voters with the right to demand and insist that those seeking to lead them must make themselves available to present their agenda and make explanations on how they intend to go about them if elected. The issues that matter currently are hunger and poverty among the citizens, high cost of living, youth unemployment, crashing value of the national currency, rising tide of insecurity, dwindling standards in education and health and decaying physical infrastructure, among others. Let the candidates, on their own, not through surrogates, present blueprints on how they would tackle these challenges. Anything to the contrary is akin to winking in the dark.