Weeks to the February and March general elections, Nigerians are obviously becoming disillusioned by the non-issues based campaigns of the two leading political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Since the return to democratic rule in 1999, Nigerians are always inundated with campaign promises, which varnished as soon as political parties and their candidates win election and assume office.
Campaigns for the forthcoming general elections present no different picture but have rather worsened, as issues are not being raised, particularly by the main contenders, to the office of the President, Muhammadu Buhari of the APC and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, and instead, character assassination has become the hallmark of their messages to Nigerians.
Analysts have expressed concerns on how the APC and PDP have engaged in campaign of character assassination rather than issues-based campaigns. According to them, the phenomenon has negative implication for democracy, as it would particularly make accountability from government to the governed very difficult.
According to Idayat Hassan, director, Centre for Democracy and Development, the campaign approach, “importantly, it makes accountability very difficult as citizens will have little or nothing to hold elected officials to post-election.
“Secondly, it edges out the alternative candidates who have better policy ideas in the contest. The challenge is our democracy, while advancing in terms of participation, this participation will not be associated with citizens trust in the system itself.”
Apaa Wombu, political science lecturer, University of Mkar, Benue State, says a campaign based on character rather than issues gives room for voting on sentiments and not good cause that garners development for the Nigerian society.
The political scientist observes, “It is becoming increasingly worrisome the way and manner the leading parties (APC and PDP) are running on character rather than issues that would change the precarious state of things Nigeria has been enmeshed in over the decades. They are not addressing issues of the economy, security and international relations as done in other democracies.”
Incidentally, at the commencement of campaigns for the National Assembly and Presidential election on November 18, 2018, the presidential candidates of APC, Muhammadu Buhari, and that of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, launched mind-blowing policy documents spelling out the plans they have for Nigeria from May 29, 2019 – May 29, 2023.
Buhari in his ‘next level’ document focused on five key issues of jobs creation, infrastructure development, business/entrepreneurship, human capital enhancement and political inclusion, with specific promise to create 7 million jobs.
Similarly, Atiku in his document christened, ‘lets get Nigeria working again,’ promised job creation with 3 million yearly, infrastructure development with construction of 5,000 kilometres of roads, and 5,000 kilometres of modern railway, human capital development and poverty eradication to lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty, by 2025.
But the ongoing campaign activities and comments by these two leading contenders and their parties indicate that they are not being guided by their mission statements – policy documents.
Such instances include the declaration by Atiku during one his campaigns outing that “Buhari is gone” while the PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus, said, “Buhari is not fit to rule Nigeria again. By the grace of God, in February, we will stand to defend our votes and defeat Buhari. The hunger in the land is too much. There is hunger because Buhari is not aware of anything in government.
“His government has collapsed. This is the most corrupt government in the history of Nigeria. Where is our $25 billion withdrawn from the NNPC account? Corruption has taken another dimension in Nigeria under Buhari. Poverty headquarters has relocated to Nigeria under Buhari. By the grace of God, Atiku is the next president of Nigeria.”
Recently, Atiku and Buhari campaign organisations were shrouded in attacks and counter attacks over the issue of acquisition of Etisalat and Keystone Bank by Buhari’s family in which a spokesman for the Atiku group said Buhari should resign from the race, “in view of reports that members of Mr. Buhari’s family now own substantial share in Etisalat Nigeria, which has an estimated $2 billion (about N727bn at $360 per) of its estimated $20 billion global net worth.”
The Buhari campaign organisation also replied in another denigrating manner by its director of strategic communications, Festus Keyamo, “They have decided to run a campaign of “we-are-all-corrupt” rather than defend their sordid records of merciless looting of the public purse, which has brought us to where we are today.
“The aim is to push Nigerians to equate an Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with President Muhammadu Buhari on matters of corruption. They want to deceive Nigerians to think that the 2019 elections is really a choice between two ‘corrupt’ persons.”
Also, while flagging off the North East campaign in Yola, director-general of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Rotimi Amaechi, rather than tell the people the package they have for them if givennext mandate, chose to say, “the only way we can show these men that we are serious is not to allow them come back because if they come back, they will use four years to recoup what they have lost.
“They will do what our parents used to teach us while we were kids, ‘do not talk while you are eating’. If you disturb them, they will tell you they are eating. They will be busy eating from what is left, all the struggles of Buhari is what they would squander. And they will do that in four years. After that, they will ask for another four years.”
