The 2023 campaign season kicked off yesterday, in accordance with Section 94(1) of the new Electoral Act 2022. The campaign is expected to last for 150 days.
The politicians who are looking for power will take their campaigns to the electorate in order to woo or convince them to vote for their political parties .
Campaign involves selling of party manifestos and candidates’ expected programmes to the potential voters.
In Nigeria, campaign is usually characterised by political violence, unguarded utterances and sponsoring of thugs by politicians. Instead of engaging in issues based campaigns, our today’s politicians spend their precious time in campaign of calumny, character defamation and above all name callings of perceived political opponents.
The unwanted campaign which involves the use of foul languages has continued to heat up the politics and sow the seed of hatred among Nigerians. Despite the Electoral Law 2022, the police order and public disturbance laws that have explicitly stated the punishments attracted for violent campaigns, desperate politicians have over time overlooked and continue to promote it.
There is no gainsaying the facts, 2023 elections will be shaped by ethnic and religious fault lines. For instance,the decision of ruling party (APC) to opt for Muslim/Muslim ticket in a polarised country has continued to generate an uproar among the Christian communities. This will further open up an available market for hate speech and abusive language. While it is cheering news that President Muhammadu Buhari during the UN general assembly meeting in the US, promised to conduct credible elections in 2023, this can only happen if our politicians play the game according to the rules. Unless our politicians see political campaigns as central to good elections and adopt refined ones as it is practised in developed countries, we should forget about having peaceful elections.
The 2023 general election campaigns should be centered on how to address the myriad security challenges, deteriorating economy and above all unity among the diverse ethnic groups of the country.
With the Frankenstein monster of insecurity rearing its ugly head in the country, our politicians should tell us their plans on how they would tackle these multi-facet challenges. The country is currently bleeding. The notorious IPOB members are making lives difficult in the South East. In the North, bandits have occupied ungovernable spaces, sacking and destroying communities. Nigerians are waiting to hear from these candidates what they have in their kits to squarely address this insecurity. The country’s economy in the last four years has nosedived with government at all levels struggling to meet up with their financial obligations.
The conversation during the forthcoming campaigns should be on how to address the twin evils of oil theft and horrible subsidy payment. It is only through issues based campaigns that Nigerians will know the right candidates who have the solutions to the country’s problems.
Ibrahim Mustapha wrote from Pambegua, Kaduna State
