One of the interesting things about electioneering is the campaign. It is the most crucial period fixed by the electoral body for political parties and their respective candidates to announce the intentions that will guide their course of action in the event they win the election.
With the 2023 general election drawing closer and the accompanying campaigns across board, especially for those running for the nation’s number one job, expectations of Nigerians are high owing to the unveiling and publishing of non-binding documents and tempting promises by political parties and their standard-bearers.
It is interesting to read and listen to sweet promises contained in documents christened manifestos that is meant to address the plights of the citizenry but, according to pundits, the trend has always been to draft unrealistic policy statements that end up as mere rhetoric and remain archived on the shelves after the people had been hoodwinked to vote based on “fantastic” manifesto presented.
Although there is a popular maxim: “Your word is your bond”, elected officials, most of the time, fail to execute the enticing policy programmes enshrined in their multi-page election manifestos and end up playing the blame game for their lack of success rather than attempt to fulfil the promises and ensure they implement their intended plan.
Over time, the voters, who at the time of the elections are armed with the power to make or mar the chances of contenders, are always subjected to biting their fingers when those they elect fall short of expectations after years of ruling. A situation that has raised concerns among Nigerians amid perennial challenges.
In the wake of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) campaign whistle, political parties and their candidates have pitched their manifestos to restructure Nigeria, revive the economic status of the country through different reforms, stabilise the naira currency, strengthen the security architecture, provide more job opportunities, improve the standard of education and many others.
As presidential candidates mount the campaign stage with their various policy statements such as Atiku’s “My covenant with Nigerians”, Tinubu’s Renewed Hope 2023 – Action plan for a Better Nigeria, Kwankwaso’s “My pledges to you” among others, the citizens are craving for a prosperous Nigeria and urging whoever succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari not to pay lip services but align their words with actions.
Matthew Edaghese, a Benin-based lawyer, told BusinessDay that Africa’s most populous country needs immediate action because every sector deserves to be prioritised.
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“As we speak, there is no way you can say a particular sector is doing well. The economy is in shambles and the security situation is in a terrible state. All the sectors are crawling on the ground. So, if you want to talk about priority, they all deserve emergency attention. Security, education, economy, I do not think any of them is doing well to warrant lack of immediate attention and some measures of urgency.
“Nigeria, as a nation, should be treated as emergency. A leader that wants to lead the nation should take all sectors seriously because when you push one up and the rest are down, those that are down will pull the ones going up. Economy cannot go up when education is going down. Security cannot do well when economy is not doing well. So, they are interwoven. An attempt to lift one and leave the rest will be disastrous,” Edaghese said.
Edaghese, a member of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of Labour Party (LP), explained that manifestos are documents through which the citizens can assess the successes or failures of leaders and it is at the point of execution of the articles of the manifestos that give hope to a nation and the people.
“It is when the leadership is being provided and the execution of the manifesto content is reflected in real terms in the life of the people that is when we should be singing hosanna.
“Manifesto is an idea put down on paper by the various political parties. They are documents of parties not candidates. You have manifesto of the democrats in America, Republican and Labour Party manifestos in the United Kingdom. They are not individual, private documents of candidates,” he said.
According to him, “The manifesto of a party binds a candidate of that party that they project. Manifesto, no matter how beautifully crafted, does not suggest a wonderfully leadership possibility. It is the vision, capacity and the sincerity of purpose of the person who is going to exercise that power of the office of the president that will determine the fate of the implementation of what is contained in the manifesto.
“Failed manifestos, as we have witnessed over the years, are products of failed leadership. When leadership fails, manifestos cannot succeed. When late Obafemi Awolowo came up with his manifestos of free education, affordable medical care and, in some case, free medical services, they were duly enforced and implemented because the leader has the vision, sincerity of purpose and the strength of character to carry through what is contained in the manifesto of the party.
“But, after those generations of politicians passed away, these current political class have the minds of traders than leaders and they see politics as private investment, where private returns are expected at the final end. The end of leadership is not to enrich yourself as a leader but to provide solutions to the problems of the people you are leading.
“When manifestos fail, it is not because they are unrealistic, it is because the leadership are not sincere and, in most cases, do not have the capacity to do what is in the manifesto. When you are not competent, no matter the tool you are given to work, you might use the tool to achieve failure.
“It is not the manifesto that will make a leader succeed, it is the leadership that will make the manifesto to succeed through dutiful implementation of the content of the manifesto and that is only possible if he has the vision and capacity and, most especially, he has the good faith and strength of character.
Speaking on the implications of not fulfilling campaign promises, he said “the manifesto is a unilateral agreement and it is bind in honor not in statute. If I tell you I will deliver quality education to the people, I will be putting my honour at stake. If I fail, I should be treated as an outcast by the people that I have failed. And it is going to rub off on the party. This is why parties own manifestos.
“So, if the candidate they produce for leadership fail to deliver, they are liable as the principal for the failure of their agent who is the candidate. So, the binding nature of manifesto is to the effect that the consequences of failure will be treated on the party in future elections and they will be punished with rejection at the polls. The punishment is electoral in nature.”
Giving his opinion on how Nigerians can push for the full implementation of manifestos, Samson Osagie, chairman, African Bar Association Nigerian Forum (AFBA), said it is both the political parties and the candidates that need to be interrogated with a view to seeing the possibility and capacity to implement what they have put down as their manifesto.
“Non-implementation of manifesto is not a justiciable issue of law just the same way you have the directive principles of state policies enshrined in Chapter II of the 1999 Nigerian constitution. Most of the manifestos are derived from the need to provide basic services in respect to almost all the issues of chapter II of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
“Chapter II of the constitution is not justiciable. So is manifestos of political parties. I think what should be looked at is the capacity, ability and track record of political parties and candidates, who put forward to say these shall be our roadmap into a new Nigeria by way of implementing policies and programs that will develop the economy, improve security and, of course, enhance the value of our currency against other currencies of the world, develop local capacities for production and manufacturing so that we can earn more export.
“I am of the school of thought that chapter II of the constitution should be justiciable. By the time, chapter II of the constitution become justiciable, any political party or candidate who wins election and whose manifestos centers on the issues around chapter II of the constitution is automatically accountable to the people to implement those policies that he has put down in form of manifestos.
“There is nothing in anybody’s manifesto that is not contemplated by chapter II of the constitution. So, if chapter II of the constitution is made justiciable, then manifestos of political parties will become justiciable and government can be held accountable if they do not implement it. It will give vent and give the people the authority to hold government accountable to their promises.
