Good Governance does not align with the political party one belongs. It lies with the credibility of the contesting candidate on the platform of a political party. Political parties are mere platforms. The actual implementation of party manifestoes lies with fielded candidates.
In most cases, those most credible to contest elections but lack the finance, are pushed away by the parties for idiots that have the financial clout to bribe their ways.
The 2027 Presidential electioneering campaign and that of Governors, National and States Houses of Assembly has also kicked-off according INEC’s time table.
P residential and other candidates are now running helter-skelter displaying their wares for buyers, ostensibly for subsequent electoral victory. Media handlers of contestants have dominated the political space marketing their candidates, holding press briefings and conferences to strengthen the records for acceptability.
Way wards, thugs, parasites, clowns and sycophants and magadogs are not left out in the jamboree. Even if not invited by the players for fear of their usual unruly behavior and de-marketing candidates, they still bulldoze their ways for recognition to at least fix body and soul together.
In the forefront for the presidential race, there are at least five strong candidates for endorsement by the electorates based on their track record in public service and, on the political field.
Leading the contestants is Atiku Abubakar of Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), who is the most experienced with the required wherewithal to stand the heat. Seconded by the incumbent, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC) with dented past, Peter Gregory Obi of National Democratic Congress (NDC), Seyi Makinde of Allied People’s Movement (APM) and Donald Henry Duke, of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).
As the campaign advances to stage two of its critical period, the renewed debate over fuel subsidy, triggered by Atiku Abubakar, has done something politically significant: it forced the Bola Tinubu led clueless administration to reopen a conversation it earlier regarded as settled despite the pains inflicted. In the process, an issue that the Federal Government had hoped to move beyond has suddenly become one of the emerging talking points ahead of the January and February 2027 elections.
Atiku has indicated that if elected president, he would restore fuel subsidy removed by Tinubu on May 29, 2023 that has brought unimaginable hardship on the citizenry. His argument essentially is straightforward: if subsidy removal has generated enormous savings for government, as the administration claims, why are Nigerians not experiencing corresponding improvements in their living standards? Why are Nigerians still wobbling in excruciating poverty with a bleak economic future starring them on the face?
Atiku also challenged the Tinubu administration to account for the resources supposedly saved from the subsidy removal.
Whatever one’s view on Atiku’s position, the political significance of the argument cannot be ignored because it is not merely an economic argument: it is a strong campaign strategy. And the fact that it has compelled the Tinubu administration to defend its policies demonstrates its potency. By moving the debate from whether subsidy removal was necessary as claimed, to whether the resulting fiscal space has been effectively utilized and whether Nigerians are actually better off from the removal or not.
Atiku has inadvertently highlighted a much larger issue, which is that the 2027 election campaign must be about issues. That is precisely what Nigerians should demand.
Beyond political rallies, ethnic mobilization, religious sentiments, insults, abuses and personality clashes, voters deserve to know what each candidate intends to do differently from what is obtainable now. The important question should not be who can insult an opponent most effectively at rallies, but who has the clearest and most credible answers to Nigeria’s problems. Nigerians expect all contestants jostling for elective offices in 2027 from State House of Assembly – the Presidency, to honor media invitations for televised public debate to separate the chaff from the grain. Some of those in contest are not educationally sound for the offices they aspire to occupy. Nigeria must get it right. We are tired of tolerating errand boys and dullards in responsible positions.
By the time Nigerians go to the polls in 2027, they will not merely be choosing a president, governor and legislators. They will be making a judgment on who deserves to be in the State and National Assemblies, State Government House and the Presidential Villa. The election should therefore be more than another cycle of the familiar Nigerian political ritual in which politicians spend more time attacking one another than explaining how they intend to provide solutions to lingering problems.
With the challenges confronting the country, clearly even artificially created economic hardship, insecurity, unemployment, and weak public institutions and declining national cohesion Nigeria cannot afford another election defined principally by personalities, ethnic calculations, religious, regional sentiments, accusations and counter-accusations.
The 2027 election should, therefore be a contest of ideas, programmes, records and competence not who is in possession of stolen public funds that can afford to bribe judges and the electoral umpire for victory. Candidates seeking the votes of Nigerians should tell the electorates what they intend to do if elected. How they intend to do it, and cost implication of their programmes implementation and source of funding. Anything less would amount to asking citizens to vote blindly for a bigger, and more troubling catastrophe than what is presently at hand.
The economy, insecurity, unemployment, public debt profile, governance and accountability are already emerging as central issues. They must remain at the heart of campaign because they are not abstract political questions. They directly affect the lives of Nigerians. Whether all eligible voters will ultimately exercise their franchise or not, they have the right to know how those seeking their mandate intend to address the problems confronting the country. The economy must be at the centre of the 2027 campaign. For the ordinary Nigerian, politics begins at the market. It is about food prices, transport fares, rent, school fees, electricity bills, healthcare costs and the availability of jobs.
Candidates will therefore have little to offer voters if they discuss the economy only in vague and abstract language.
Nigerians should know precisely what each candidate intends to do about inflation, food production, the naira, fuel prices, taxation, interests rates, public debt, wages, unemployment and purchasing power.
The debate should also go beyond whether the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms are good or bad. The ruling party should explain the results of its policies and provide evidence of their impact. The opposition parties, on their part, should tell Nigerians which policies they would retain if elected, and which ones they would reverse, and what they would differently do. The era of simply saying that a policy is bad without explaining the alternative should be over. We are no more the fools we are thought to be.
Security is another issue that should dominate the campaign. It cannot be treated as a collection of political slogans because insecurity escalates daily with new techniques under Tinubu.
Farmers cannot produce enough food for fear of attacks by bandits and marauding ethno-religious terrorists. Businesses cannot thrive where kidnapping, brutal attacks by tribal militias and extortion are commonplace.
Children cannot learn effectively when schools are unsafe. Communities cannot develop when residents live under constant fear. Candidates should therefore present comprehensive security strategies that may be acceptable to all.
For instance, Lawal Dare in Zamfara, Uba Sani in Kaduna, Caleb Mutfwang in Plateau, Nasiru Idris in Kebbi should give a blueprint of how they plan to restore sanity in their states if reelected. How will they confront terrorism, banditry and ethno-religious crisis? What will they do about kidnapping and cattle rustling? How will rural communities, schools and highways be protected against bandits and tribal militias? How will intelligence gathering be improved and sustained? How will security agencies be better equipped, trained and supervised for neutrality in operation?
How will governments address the economic and social conditions that facilitate criminality? And how will accountability be enforced within the security architecture? These are questions Nigerians should be asking those seeking their mandates.
And how does the candidate intend to fight corruption in public service as well as retrieval of stolen public funds from those criminals who tested power, and abused the trust reposed in them.
Education, healthcare and steady electricity supply also require serious attention. The 2027 election provides an opportunity to place these critical sectors at the centre of states and televised national debates.
What will be each candidate’s blueprint for public education? How will public universities and other tertiary institutions be adequately funded without making higher education inaccessible to the have-nots? How will the country address the continuing loss of doctors, nurses, lecturers, engineers and other professionals to other countries? How will healthcare be affordable and accessible by ordinary citizens?
There is also the perennial question of electricity. For decades, Nigerians have asked when the country will finally enjoy reliable and affordable power supply. Candidates should be required to provide specific ways on renewable energy play. How will investment in the sector be financed? What reforms are required to make the power market sustainable? The same standard should apply to roads, railways, waterways, water supply, and other critical infrastructure.
An issue-based campaign does not mean ignoring the records of candidates. On the contrary, records should be central to the election. Any candidate who has previously held public office should be asked: give account of your scorecard and funds involved when you served. What was your experience if given another opportunity? Candidates should not be allowed to present themselves by proxy. They should physically appear to face Nigerians.
Nigeria needs a president who can govern all Nigerians with sincerity and honesty, Governors who can govern all residents without discrimination, and Legislators who understand that their constitutional responsibility extends beyond their immediate ethnic, religious or political constituencies.
Identity will always be part of Nigerian politics, but it should not be allowed to overwhelm competence, character and performance.
The 2027 elections are too important to national progress and unity to be reduced to mere slogans, rallies and political theatre. The economy under Tinubu is hurting. Insecurity remains a major concern. Young Nigerians are demanding opportunities. Public confidence in political institutions is under pressure. These realities require serious political conversation.
The ultimate test of Nigeria’s democracy should no longer be merely who wins an election. It should rightly be who can win and deliver positive results. The time has come to transform elections from contests of personalities into competitions over ideas, performance and the future of Nigeria. It’s no longer Emi-lokan, Yoruba-lokan or sycophancy of On Your Mandate We Shall Stand, but who deserves to be a Nigerian President and acceptable globally, who deserves to be a State Governor, who deserves to be a National Lawmaker, and who is qualified to be in the State House of Assembly? Nigerians are tired of tolerating merchants who bulldozed their ways to power lacking intellectual capacity to perform the expected but all out to embezzle public funds for ostentatious living. The time to elect the right people for service is 2027. We either get it right, or we call for a revolution to clear the Augean Stable. Nigerians MUST not be, deceived with bogus claims laced with ethnicity, regionalism or religiosity. Muslim-Muslim ticket is a mockery of commonsense. We must keep a distance from that planned hypocrisy. We have passed that trying stage for a better and more united Nigeria!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
