Wheeling, dealing begin as politicians strategise ahead 2027

…Governance to take back seat as politicking intensifies

…Nigerians must address deeper issues plaguing political system not on voting another party – Lukman

The next round of general election in Nigeria is billed to hold in 2027. But politicians had last year begun to talk so much about the election. Some politicians have since come out to claim that their parties would win in 2027. Some of those in the current administration say that there is no vacancy in the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

With the dawn of 2025, Nigerians are expected to see more activities and hear a lot of rhetoric around the coming national election.

While many Nigerians seem not bothered about what the politicians say about 2027, the major concern for them is the negative impact of the gravitation towards the next election by current office holders, particularly on governance.

“Obviously, it is a tough time for Nigerians; the government and elected officials should sit down and work, rather than talk about 2027. Poverty and hunger are felt everywhere; political office holders must show what they have done for the mandate people gave them in 2023, instead of talking about re-election now,” Ladipo Johnson, lawyer and national Publicity of NNPP, said.

BusinessDaySunday can authoritatively report that there are already intense talks about alignments and realignments among political actors ahead of the 2027 general election. These are already constituting a distraction to political office holders and governance generally.

In recent weeks, there were multiple reports that officials in the current administration, state governments were already strategising and making moves to aid their return to power.

Even major opposition politicians including Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Nasir El-Rufai, former Kaduna State governor, among several politicians, are reportedly in advance stage of merger talk. Some reports also indicated moves by these politicians to float a new political party or adopt any existing political party in the country ahead of 2027.

Some observers have expressed concern that the early attention given to an election coming up in 2027 by elected political actors in the current administration that is not even half way yet, may jeopardise the fulfilment of the campaign promises made before the 2023 general election, which should be the priority of any serious government at this point rather than thinking of re-election or 2027.

“Whatever policies you are implementing, if it does not fight poverty and hunger, it is a failure. The welfare of the masses should be a priority. We can’t be talking of elections all the time; rather, we need policies that would fight poverty and hunger in the land now,” Kunle Okunade, public affairs commentator, said.

Okunade noted that there should be some form of accountability among public office holders, saying that part of the problem why leaders are not delivering was the country’s electoral system.

“When you know if you don’t deliver you would be voted out, you would sit up and work, but that is not the case here, our electoral system is captured and votes may count little. The people are suffering; you saw the stampede over distribution of rice,” he stressed.

Many Nigerians are tired of being taken for a ride by political actors who spew out lies in the name of promises in their desperation to garner votes and want to focus on real impactful policies and programmes that would impact their lives in 2025.

Despite embarking on wide range of reforms since assuming office, there is the general belief among Nigerians that the current government at the Federal level has done little to alleviate the people’s suffering, rather the removal of fuel subsidy has compounded their woes after astronomical increase in the price of virtually everything.

Similarly, observers say that many state and political office holders have nothing to prove that they have delivered on their campaign promises to the people, while those who received funds for constituency projects have nothing to show that they have delivered the projects to their constituents.

Experts say that initiation of social welfare for the citizens was the best way rather than government and wealthy individuals sharing food items and money to the citizens.

“People should be empowered to fend for themselves, by building factories and industries to employ teeming youths who want to work,” Joy Otiwa, public analyst, said, adding that it was high time government and wealthy individuals realised that the idea of sharing palliatives to the public would not fight poverty.

Read also: Stakeholders urge INEC for early preparation, sensitisation ahead of 2027 elections 

Otiwa said that what the country needed now from leaders was right policies to encourage SMEs, entrepreneurship, soft loan schemes for farmers and industries to employ skilled youths for them to be able to carter for themselves and families.

“We should move beyond sharing palliatives this new year. The masses are suffering and what the political leaders are doing is to give palliatives that do not solve any problem. It is sad; a lot of them made promises in 2023, but what have they done?

“They know what to do and would not do it; the so-called rich men sharing palliatives, why can’t they establish factories, industries in their states if they are so rich for our people to go work there?

“Are the palliatives the dividends of democracy they promised during their campaigns? Even the palliatives are only given to their party members and cronies and not for all the constituents and the people.

“They should know that those who abandon their people and face early politicking will also fail when the elections come. They should know that it is the same masses that are suffering today that would vote them out. It is only their achievements that would speak for them to be voted for or be voted against when that time comes,” she said.

Salihu Lukman, a former national vice chairman for the North-West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), argued that the task of removing current politicians and restoring sanity in the electoral process to guarantee good governance will not be easy, as many Nigerians remain disillusioned by the unmet promises of change made by the APC in 2015, which have led to widespread disappointment.

According to Lukman, the campaign to rescue Nigeria must go beyond the superficial objective of merely defeating the APC and President Tinubu. Instead, it should be built upon a clearly defined vision aimed at moving the country forward.

He acknowledged that political promises alone will no longer suffice, especially given the growing mistrust of politicians who often make similar promises of a better future but fail to deliver.

“The feat of defeating President Tinubu in 2027 will not be easy, and it cannot be achieved by simply making promises similar to those made by the APC before 2015. Nigerians will find it hard to trust any politician who presents an empty vision, especially when they have already experienced disappointment after being promised change,” Lukman said.

The former APC chieftain stressed that the opposition needs to offer a substantive alternative, not just rhetoric. He explained that the first and most important vision should focus on the kind of political platform the opposition wants to create.

Lukman believed that what Nigerians must insist and work towards is a way of addressing the deeper issues plaguing Nigeria’s political system and not merely to vote in another party that will also behave like the ones before it.

Critics also expressed concern over the practice of warehousing monies that should be used to execute projects that could be of benefit to the citizenry. Such monies are either put in fixed deposits of buried in septic tanks and other safe facilities to be used to compromise voters.

“What pains me so much is that the so-called budgets of 2025 and the one of 2026 would be cornered ahead of the 2027 general election. Political actors of today, who have the opportunity of receiving allocations are looking and planning ahead. We are no strangers to the discoveries that were made that linked to the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). We saw countless number of vehicles, huge amount of money in different currencies, among other things said to have been recovered from him. That gives you an idea of what politicians do. So, we are not likely to see much in terms of budget performance this year and next year despite the trillions announced as the budget. As it is at the federal level, it is the same at the state level,” Kingsley Odoh, an economist, said.