Will the campaign be about the economy? We wait and see

For now it is all jibes, responding to thrown tantrums and how ‘my party is better than yours’. All the parties are propped in whatever issues in the news they can use to attack each other’s presidential candidate. All the big issues at this stage are obviously forgotten. It is ominously taking the shape of an election about small things but not one of ideas.

Ok. What about reducing the pressure on the economy and state finances? Reducing recurrent spending –refocusing talks on more spending on education, roads and the likes to improve the economy on the long run. What about public sector reforms, the declining level of trust in public institutions including churches and the overall size of government and cost of governance?

Will you push for a new land laws? This has been one of the thorniest challenges or issues industrialists faced. What exist now makes acquiring land for industry virtually impossible.

These are some of the major issues that Nigerians would want to hear talked about as political parties begin their 2015 elections campaign. These are the issues that have always been left untouched and absent from discussion by politicians since the dawn of Nigeria’s new political era.

What about how to truly diversify the economy. Are we going to hear how you will make that happen? Or should I ask; do you have a clue on how to make it happen?

We hear talk about jobs and how you will create them and how you have created them. How do you intend to create a sustainable labour market?

This next one will be too heavy to talk about. Or should I say too sensitive to mention-Yes, too sensitive-Corruption. I guess. Those fingers you point might be too soiled to wag. You will be laughed at. So how do you approach that as a campaign issue when you are ‘one of them’? Corruption is perhaps the biggest albatross and Nigerians hate it because it destroys the very fabric that could enliven them or better put, it diminishes that little hope they have about the country and its future. It is everywhere, in government, the national assembly, public institutions, private institutions, at homes and even in churches.

Oil price is still falling. We need to see some kind of broad document revealing party ideas on how to respond to the crisis crude price decline brews. I don’t think you or anyone has heard a vague statement from the parties on crude price. Similarly, we want to hear someone say something about broad rethinking of the Nigerian economy and how it will reward the weak, the poor, women, children and the working class-not just the rich.

This election campaign should bring out in all honesty broader discussions about Nigeria’s future, Nigeria’s problems including its long-standing security problems. Countries all over the globe are working collectively today to stem the scourge of terrorism. How do you intend to broaden Nigeria’s involvement in the fight against terrorism?

Having watched Nigeria’s security situation fall off the cliff, Nigerians would want to see more pluralism and humility in the talk of the subject that has hitherto diminished commerce, certainty and unity between Christians and Muslims. Boko Haram, the cause of Nigeria’s current biggest security challenge should not be talked of as if it were about the discovery of a new oil well- you can not just end it, like one of the candidates alluded to, but you can outline processes to defeat it that will be believed.

Charles Ike-Okoh