A case for issue-based campaigns

The last few weeks were activity-packed for many of the numerous political parties in the country. There were congresses at various levels to select delegates who participated in the election of flag-bearers; there were primaries to elect those who will contest different positions in 2015, and there were conventions by some parties to ratify earlier adoptions of some candidates. These activities were not without acrimonies as there were some aggrieved aspirants who felt that the processes that saw the emergence of certain candidates were not transparent enough.
It is our belief that, in the first place, there should not be so much fight in politics by politicians if actually the motivation is for service. One does not need to fight and kill to seek election to serve. Desperation to be in government at all costs and by all means is not borne out of a genuine desire to render selfless service.
Now that the parties have known those representing them in the elections, the need for issue-based campaign cannot be over-emphasised.
Nigeria, no doubt, is currently challenged in every front. The political, social and economic problems of the Nigerian nation are public knowledge. In the search for solution to these troubles, those who aspire to man the driver’s seat of leadership of the country must appreciate the needs of the moment and moderate their campaigns accordingly.
As proper campaigns begin in earnest across the country, we urge all candidates to be civil in their use of words. Rather than engage in unprofitable campaign, accentuated by trading of blames, character assassination and acrimony, candidates, particularly presidential flag-bearers of political parties, must lend themselves to robust debate and convincing strategies on how to lift the nation from its economic nadir.
This call has become necessary given the level of desperation that is being exhibited by parties and their candidates, which apparently conveys a message that what matters to them is to get to power and not what to do when they get there.
For the two major parties – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) – it is now incumbent on them to spell out in clear and simple terms their programmes for the country. While we expect the APC to tell the people what it hopes to bring to the table better than what the situation has been since 1999 under the ruling party, the PDP should also convince the people what new thing it is bringing on board to deserve re-election.
In this regard, we align with Olarenwaju Suraju, coordinator of the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), that parties and their candidates should “present to electorates and international observers concrete and realistic programme of action designed to revamp the economy, uplift majority of Nigerians out of abject poverty, consolidate democracy, promote popular participation in politics, redeem the country’s image amongst comity of nations and, most importantly, stamp out corruption”.
Parties and their candidates should, as a matter of obligation, stop the culture of campaign of calumny as “this is alien to our polity but shamelessly popularised by politicians to cover their inadequacies while hoodwinking the electorates”.
On the part of the electorates, they should wise up and engage candidates on the basis of their manifestoes, programmes, integrity, antecedence and credential of candidates.
We share the view of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) that “political campaign in our country today has virtually degenerated into an abysmal level of a jamboree put together to entertain” as “most times, what we see is one party striving to outwit the other in a shameful competition of direct abuses of individual opponents and critics”. For us, the best campaign is the one that is run under mutual respect for opposing candidates, making service the focal point.
As CACOL suggests, “The presidential candidates must ignore their party differences, come together and play the trail-blazer in this regard by collaborating with the media and other relevant non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations to package a stage-by-stage media chats/interviews and debates between presidential candidates and, if you like, their deputies, during which they are made to provide answers to various national questions that are put to them by the organisers.”
We cannot agree less as, in our view, this is the way to go. Anything to the contrary will amount to sheer shenanigan.