Immediately after the 2023 general elections, many politicians began illegal electioneering campaigns for the next set of elections scheduled for 2027. All efforts to remind them that they were abandoning governance which is the real essence of democracy and which should naturally follow elections failed. The truth however is that those cosmetic gestures across the nation made up of political alignments and defections which are essentially self-seeking do not constitute proper campaigns. Politicians with great ideas of how to improve the living standards of the people ought to be better disposed. They ought not to jump the gun by engaging in premature campaigns just as whatever campaigns they choose to participate in at the appropriate time should be detailed enough to aptly enlighten the people to make informed choices. Now that campaigns have rightly begun, politicians must not be allowed to be sleepy, instead they are obliged to educate us all on their manifestoes and election promises. It is against this backdrop that we call on all politicians to embrace issue-based campaigns and also to put an end to the practice of taking our citizens for granted.
In the last one week, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC appears to have gained some traction even without supplying us with all the details concerning the political messages he has fired. First, Atiku says if elected, he would restore fuel subsidy. The loud applause which greeted the promise does not mean that people understood how the maker intends to fulfil the promise. Ordinarily, considering the high level of corruption which surrounded subsidy since 1999 when the same Atiku was the nation’s vice president, a persuasive analysis of how he intends to accomplish the goal is what should deserve an applause but many people are excited because the candidate’s message suits the emotions of the moment. Atiku and his principal, Olusegun Obasanjo were in power from 1999 to 2007; they could not defeat the oil thieves that were described as a cartel by government. From then till 2023, successive governments established beyond reasonable doubt that the cartel was invincible. If Atiku is elected in 2027 and he restores subsidy, the cartel and fuel scarcity may return but at this point only a few would bother about that because it concerns the future.
At the peak of the Obasanjo-Atiku presidency, fuel price moved to N49 per litre thereby raising huge inflation of prices across the board. The hard-fighting Nigerian Labour Congress NLC of those days tackled the government. Federal and state officials and indeed the national council of states came up with a solution for each state to provide N200million naira to which the federal government was to donate N100m per state for the purchase of buses to be given to transporters to bring down the high cost of transportation at the time. Whereas the federal government met its own side of the arrangement, I think it was only Lagos and Oyo states that released their own counterpart funding. In short, the lofty idea eventually failed making it clear that as soon as some truce is achieved on a subject, government has a way of giving up on its promises. What this suggests is that it is unwise to trust politicians concerning the people’s welfare. Now that people are clapping for the likely return of subsidy, we expect the ruling party to task Atiku to give details of his plan to return the nation to what hurt us before. Meanwhile, no one knows if what Atiku is championing will be better or worse.
Indeed, what evidence is there that Atiku is not only looking for how to get into power? When did he discover the strategy, he wants to unfold now? While some people would see him as unpatriotic if he has always known it but chose to hoard it as a joker to be pulled up only when he comes to power, others would not trust the efficacy of the strategy if it was recently hurriedly designed to capture power. All of that is politics. What matters is that everyone will be forced to communicate; some may have to publish and translate their own viewpoint into several local languages because Nigerians have had cause not to trust any group that have at one time or the other constituted the governments of their country. In the case of the 2027 elections, not all Nigerians would be simplistic enough to accept slogans as election promises. If many people are unhappy with the result of ‘subsidy is gone’ why would most people not be more irritated if ‘I will bring back subsidy’ takes us back to the dark old days when no one knew the quantity of oil produced per day in Nigeria or even the number of trucks loaded per day or their destinations. Nigeria’s civic society should grow up.
The same respected presidential candidate has come up with another well-sounding statement namely that if elected into office in 2027, he would reopen all closed borders. His main argument that trans-border trade is a legitimate business has a point but can that alone be the basis for opening or closing borders? Theoretically, it can be argued that the closure of the borders of a country can hurt the economic interests of many trans-border traders. Consequently, opening the borders may have some advantages. There is doubt however if Atiku’s conclusion that the borders were unreasonably closed is correct. As a matter of fact, there is no evidence that the borders were still closed at the point the ADC candidate was promising to open them when elected. This is because some few hours after Atiku’s statement on border closure, the presidency countered him. According to Sunday Dare, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, ‘the federal government had reopened most of the country’s land borders in March 2024 and had not reversed the policy.’ He therefore questioned the basis of Atiku’s pledge, asking which borders the ADC presidential candidate intended to open when the existing policy already permits legitimate movement and trade.
The truth is that because our leaders are fond of taking us for granted Nigerians did not know whether our borders had been opened or closed. The little we all know consists of several controversies attributable to liberal policies concerning national borders. There is the issue of smuggling which reportedly increased when borders were left open without control. More importantly, not many Nigerians would be excited over the opening of borders considering the complexities of herder-farmer conflicts which assumed greater proportions following the influx of migrants in the days of free movement and visa on arrival policy in Nigeria. We all had to be admonished to avoid ethnic profiling and to recognize that all Fulani are not the same. Under the circumstance, no politician should resort to these sensitive issues without properly stating the details of his intention especially the arrangements he has designed for dealing with their effects. We welcome the quick response by the presidency to Atiku’s statements which have since affected the reaction of some groups. The ensuing discussions have clearly established the importance of political debates which when properly organized can help our people to be better educated in making informed decisions. It is too late in the day considering our nation’s stunted growth to allow our politicians to continue to take the people for granted.
It is therefore hoped that in the days ahead, all our politicians will imbibe the spirit of political debates which are integral to the presidential system of government. As stated earlier, the ADC candidate has to be more forthcoming. His absence at the recent outing of major presidential candidates in Port Harcourt under the auspices of the Nigerian Bar Association was a minus more so as his vice, Rotimi Amaechi who was present made us believe that he was yet to be on the same page as his principal. Similarly, the incumbent president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was also absent. In Nigeria, handlers of incumbents are fond of making the same mistake that their candidate should be absent so as to avoid being the target. The posture is wrong because during a debate, he is essentially a presidential candidate seeking votes like all others. Bearing in mind that meeting the media, facing the camera and addressing a large audience are not Tinubu’s weaknesses, it is an error of judgment on the part of his handlers to talk him out of any presidential debate. In a properly moderated debate, a seasoned anchor will give no room for anyone to be targeted. Everyone should be free to appropriately brief all voters. It is time for Nigeria to be a communicating nation.
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