Tag: NigeriaDecides

2023: Northerners don’t need Yoruba, Igbo as president – Atiku

Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar has said Northerners do not need a Yoruba person nor an Igbo person to be the president, stressing that the country needs a Northerner to be the president of the country next year.

Atiku, a former Vice President of Nigeria, said this when he featured as a guest of the Arewa Joint Committee interactive sessions with various presidential candidates of political parties on Saturday in Kaduna State.

He stressed that what Nigeria needs to get her working again was a pan-Nigerian president and that the credential of national inclusivity, not ethnicity should be an ideal that the Northern part of the country should examine in electing a new president for the country in the 2023 elections.

He noted that with a political career spanning more than three decades, he stood shoulder-high as a Northerner who has built bridges of unity across the country, and therefore, more fit to be president of the country in 2023.

“I have traversed the whole of this country. I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country. What the ordinary Northerner needs is somebody from the North and who also understands the other parts of Nigeria and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country.

“This is what the Northerner needs. He doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate or an Igbo candidate. This is what the Northerner needs. So, I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian,” the PDP presidential candidate said.

Delivering his speech at the event, Atiku highlighted the key policy agendas, which he intends to pursue if elected president to include promoting national unity through deliberate actions that would secure mutual trust and confidence among all tendencies.

The other policy areas that he enumerated were reforms in education, agriculture and reversing the economic downturn of the country.

The interactive session, which took place at the Arewa House, was attended by high-ranking leaders of various North-based socio-cultural bodies.

October 16, 2022
This Time Next Year – By Chidi Amuta

The distance between political campaign promises and their fulfilment is an infinity. Between when these promises are made and the end of the tenure of those who usually promise paradise and deliver hell, people are often too dazed to remember. As it were, empty promises seem to be part of the language of political campaigning. At the root of this anomaly especially in Africa is the crooked assumption that politics is by its very nature an amoral undertaking. It has therefore come to be assumed in these parts, at least, that politicians are inherently a tribe of professional liars. Over time, this has led to what is now called a trust deficit with politicians. Simply put, most citizens no longer believe most of what politicians say either during campaigns or even while in office. Call it counter truth or Donald Trump’s ‘alternate truth’. Politicians seem to have redefined truth in their own image.

Election seasons are democracy’s season of reveries or mass delusion decorated in hysteria. The opening of Nigeria’s campaign season for 2023, is also the inauguration of our season of reverie and carnivals. It is carnival time, a great time to dream while wide awake. The electorate is taken on a sustained make belief roller coaster ride, entertained with endless vistas of paradise in the horizon. The worse the society and its conditions, the wider the market for decorated lies and unrealisable promises of paradise.

In a sense, every serious politician is a dream weaver of sorts. First, they spend fortunes on commissioned policy papers, manifestoes and action plans. In these days of PowerPoint presentations and digital wonders, political and public relations consultants come up with endless computer holograms, graphs, animations and virtual scenarios at the behest of their clients. Political marketing has assumed wild dimensions as major tech companies now help politicians to buy and sell followers and would be voters online. Nigerian politicians have joined the fray of digital scams. Recall how some of the presidential aspirants were sold holographs that indicated they had already won their party tickets until the morning after. Some aspirants went into instant depression while the consultants vanished into thin with brief cases stuffed with dollars!

It is not only local politicians that are exploiting the power of information technology and the digital revolution. Even politicians in the most sophisticated of nations are in it. Preparatory to his very first visit with North Korea’s young autocratic leader, Kim Jung Un, the irrepressible President Donald Trump had his public relations gurus prepare him a digital wonderland of what North Korea would look like after it opens up to the West. The presentation was replete with shiny new cities with white sand beaches, chains of seaside luxury hotels and apartment high rises with sprawling malls and casinos. It was an undisguised marketing tool in aid of greater Westernization and all the creature comforts that have ensnared many societies to embrace the neon lure of western materialism and ostentatious consumption.

As it turned out, a faction of the CIA had fed President Trump the delusion that since the young dictator had received the best of western education and exposure, having studied in elite Swiss schools, he would be tempted to swallow the bait of Western investment and take the glory for opening up the hermit kingdom to the world. No dice. Trump had disastrously miscalculated. After Trump’s presentation, Kim Jung Un got even angrier with the West. He wrote fewer ‘love’ letters to Trump thereafter and instead fired more missiles with a capacity to hit fancy US cities if matters came to a head. Trump never returned in the direction of North Korea and nicely swallowed his promises. A similar gambit had also failed in his attempt to lure the Palestinian Authority to swallow a phantom peace deal with Israel in return for life more abundant.

At election time in today’s world, the best politicians now hire credible marketers and marketing corporations to bear the burden of their own famed credibility gaps. It is not only here. In most parts of the world, people have grown to habitually NOT believe politicians and the promises they make at election time. The so-called trust deficit about politicians has become a global pandemic.

The old tradition used to be that political spokes persons and marketers needed to be acclaimed talkatives and unserious men and women with unusual gifts of the gab. They need to be smooth- talking and savvy enough to deceive an undiscerning electorate into buying into their wagon of rotten apples. Since politicians cannot themselves step out to market dodgy used cars, they look within their party faithful for famed marketers of fake things.

Generally, the ground is most fertile in certain places for marketing fishy vistas of imminent heaven. A bad place with a tradition of ready belief is the birthplace of gods of salvation. When a society hits bottom, every miscreant bearing a basket of promises of better times is greeted as the harbinger of a messiah.

As in every prelude to the promised hour, this is Nigeria’s hour of promises, the hour of deliverance from the menace of bad leadership and the ogres of tragic governance. Nigeria in the countdown of the 2023 elections is a natural fertile ground for a basket of promises. And the major political parties have keyed into the fad of the hour. But unlike their counterparts in the advanced Western democracies, Nigerian politicians and their parties have done the predictable. Completely insensitive to the trust deficit, see whom the parties have chosen as their campaign spokespersons.

The ruling APC has chosen Mr. Femi Fani Kayode, a man for all seasons and all possibly parties in partnership with lawyer turned political town crier Festus Keyamo as the paired of duelling talkaholics. The duo seem to balance out the interests that will make or wound the APC’s chances in 2023: one for Mr. Tinubu and the other for the receding shadow of the Buhari lame duck. The opposition PDP has opted for the loquacious Dino Melaye while Mr. Obi’s Labour Party has predictably settled for doctor turned political attack hound, Mr. Doyin Okupe. These gentlemen are all , in their own right, illustrious Nigerian political animals of unmistakable pedigree and tested track records. But I doubt that any modern political agenda with the slightest regard for the prevailing trust deficit haunting our politicians will place any of these gentlemen in the forecourt of their used car shop! But the message of this campaign season goes beyond the pedigree and credibility of the party messengers per se.

Nigeria is not new to the politics of campaign promises and the flourish of fancy rhetoric. The motor park grade exchange of insults has come to stay just as the abuse of logic and descent into personal name calling is to be expected. Politicians who themselves are mostly bereft of policy depth or a reasonable level of knowledge of the issues of the day can only be expected to relapse into mundane superficial inanities and the mouthing of lazy catch phrases and cliches.

We have been here before. President Obasanjo campaigned on the basis of consolidating Nigeria’s nationhood and restoring democratic freedoms after three decades of military rule about which he knows quite a bit. He gave it his best shot in all fairness. Mr. Yar’dua, though short lived, was not a man of promises and propaganda. He got on with the job with a clarity of thought and a surefootedness that impressed a sceptical nation. The only promise Yar’dua made was to uphold Obasanjo’s legacy and deepen his reform of the economy and end militant insurgency in the Niger Delta.

President Goodluck Jonathan, probably overwhelmed by the enormity of his responsibility, insisted that he did not want to make any promises so that no one would hold him responsible for any unfulfilled promises. Smart chap! He sauntered through his tenure before he was relieved by the electorate who chose Mr. Buhari to succeed him. Since he made no promises, his only legacy is that he peacefully handed us over to Mr. Buhari.

Both President Buhari and his marketers in the new coalition that became the APC were full of promises. Mr. Jonathan’s bumbling presidency had provided them with enough ammunition to shoot down whatever he thought would be his legacy. For insecurity, Buhari brandished his old soldier’s rusty credentials. For the economy, the man promised greater frugality since he was known for a spartan life and indifference to materialism. No one asked him what he had ever managed profitably. For national unity, he trumpeted his questionable role in the civil war. For discipline, he drummed up his record of indiscriminate detentions and flogging of innocent people during his two years of frowning military autocracy. Myths, promises, high hopes and expectations.
Now, almost eight years down the road, Nigerians can hardly recognise what strange animal has bitten them.

We are where we are. Irrespective of which party manifesto is in question, there is now a political consensus of national urgency. For the first time, Nigerian political parties and the electorate have a broad agreement. All parties agree that the Buhari administration is a watershed, a dividing line between hell and anything else. No honest party or candidate wants to re-enact the nightmare of the last seven and half years. But everyone agrees that the Buhari administration is not totally useless. Like poison, it has its uses: you can use it to cure or to kill. It has provided all the ingredients that any politician needs to make his campaign easy. All the themes and issues are complete. Check through Buhari’s legacy of serial infamy: Insecurity. Poverty. Economic chaos. National disunity. Rudderless governance. Corruption. Apathy to ideas. Nepotism. Unemployment…

It is therefore a classic irony when the incumbent president only last week admonished politicians and candidates to dwell on issues and avoid sensationalism and emotional subjects. Why not? He has created a long enough list of issues to fuel more than one campaign season. This could indeed be a lazy campaign season because the incumbent has defined all the issues and the parameters for fruitful electioneering. Candidates just need to plug in and play.

Yet there remains a lot of work to be done. There is an urgent need for specifics and precision in campaign promises. Mr. Peter Obi, easily the most exciting of the presidential candidates, has insisted that he wants to run a different agenda and inaugurate a different political tradition from the politics as usual represented by his opponents. But he remains scanty on details and specific directions.

For now, though, Mr. Obi who is yet to publish or publicise a manifesto or work plan continues to ride on his growing wave of popularity fed on the trust and hype of a populace glued to his difference. So far, there is no specific work plan either on the economy or basic governance strategies.

Mr. Tinubu who just returned from a vacation trip in the United Kingdom has joined the campaign fray. He remains for now stuck at the level of cliches and catch phrases. He has not yet presented any manifesto or policy document. Addressing his teeming devotees and campaign women on his return, he has reassured all that “your hope is back!”, “the future is bright!”

So far, only Mr. Atiku Abubakar has come forward with a sensible and fairly detailed policy document. His policy template is a condensed and updated postscript of the Obasanjo reform agenda. He wants to improve power, generate employment, improve security by training and recruiting more service personnel. Most importantly, he wants to restructure the federation into more economically viable federating units even if he stops shy of how he hopes to jump the constitutional hurdle on that one.

For now, it promises to be an avalanche of promises and programmes with at least 18 presidential candidates on the ballot. What no one can say for sure, however, is how soon after Mr. Buhari’s anxiously awaited exit to Daura Nigerians can expect to breathe an air of optimism with a foretaste of some sweetness. One thing is certain though, after the first 100 days of whoever becomes the next president, our minimum expectation is a swing in our national mood from the present gloom, anxiety and depression to one of possibility, optimism and some anticipation of hope in the horizon. By this time next year, perhaps we can see a ray of sunshine.

October 16, 2022
I will win 2023 presidential election – Tinubu boasts confidently

Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 elections, Bola Tinubu has expressed an uncanny confidence that he will win the 2023 presidential election.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Tinubu expressed the confidence of winning the 2023 presidential election in his remarks during the KadInvest 7.0 event on Saturday.

“I want to be elected as president. I am confidently telling you that I will win… with your support and I know that you all are very very supportive of me. I know I am at home here,” the APC presidential candidate said.

The former Lagos State Governor disclosed that under his stewardship as president, the federal government will build on the efforts of the current administration to review, amend and enact relevant laws that will engender the rule of law.

“We will continue to prioritize the restoration of peace and security across all of our territory. I assure you, no inch of this country conceded to banditry and armed robbery. We will fight it together.

“Another confidence note, under my leadership, the government will place great emphasis on the use of counter-insurgency doctoring and strategy by our military.

“We will continue to train and equip our gallant forces and security personnel with resources, gear, equipment and all technology necessary to eliminate crime in our society. It might not be tomorrow but your lives will be secured,” he said.

October 15, 2022
2023: Ex-president, Jonathan finally reveals preferred candidate

Former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan has finally revealed his preferred candidate ahead of the 2023 presidential election in the country.

Jonathan endorsed the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa.

The Bayelsa -born politician made this known yesterday while playing host to the Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa in his Otuoke home.

Jonathan described Governor Okowa of Delta State as the “incoming Vice President” of Nigeria.

Pulling Okowa from his seat, Jonathan, who was seen holding a plate of kola nuts and praying for his guests, asked God to grant his visitor “acceptability.”

“We pray that this kola nut being presented to all of us will give us more energy, more acceptability, and more success in all our endeavours. Especially for those who want to represent us from next year,” he stated.

Turning to Okowa, Jonathan said: “This is for our incoming vice president, who has spent his two terms as governor and needs to move up.“

Okowa said the visit was to seek Jonathan’s guidance and prayers.

He noted that it was impossible to embark on such a journey without recourse to the former Nigerian leader.

“We are here for the fact it is difficult for the party to truly go on, even as we flag off our campaign, without formally coming to request that though we are very conversant with the fact that you are playing an elder statesman role, not just within our nation but outside the country and indeed Africa, there is a need for us to come forth to plead that you need to guide us.

“You will also offer us prayers and find a way to add your voice both privately and even publicly in many situations that we call on you to speak on behalf of this nation and on behalf of the PDP,” he stated.

October 14, 2022
95 million Nigerians to vote in 2023 elections – INEC

Not more than 95 million Nigerians will vote in next year’s general elections, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for 25th February, while the governorship and state assembly polls hold a fortnight after.

At an event organised by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems at the NED headquarters in Washington DC, United States, the INEC Chairman, Prof, Mahmood Yakubu said: “There are 18 political parties in the race to produce the next President to be elected by 95 million voters. We had over 84 million registered voters in 2019. But with the last Continuous Registration of Voters, we are going to add at least 10 million Nigerians and that will take the register of voters to 95 million”.

Yakubu further said: “The election is significant because the incumbent President is not eligible to run, this being his second and final term.

“I say this and I won’t be tired of saying it to an audience like this: In West Africa, there are 15 countries including Nigeria. But the total number of registered voters in the 14 countries combined is 73 million. In Nigeria, it’s going to be 95 million”.

The campaign for the elections have now officially commenced with the state elections – governorship and state assembly – being allowed from today to mobilise support. The presidential and National Assembly elections campaign had been flagged off two weeks ago.

October 13, 2022
2023: APC denies plots to stop electronic transmission of results

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has denied allegations that the Federal Government is putting pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stop the electronic transmission of election results in 2023.

Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, Director of Special Media Project, Operations and New Media of the APC Presidential Campaign Council said this when he spoke with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.

He spoke at the end of a meeting between the PCC, the APC National Working Committee (NWC) and the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF).

Opposition parties had accused the Federal Government of putting pressure on INEC to deactivate the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) from its server ahead of the elections. But Fani-Kayode said it was untrue.

“The answer to that is absolute nonsense. It’s what you call poppycock, and these are the words of a drowning party, spoken by a drowning man with a drowning candidate. There is nothing like that, we are above board, we are serious about what we are trying to do, we are going to achieve our objective, we are going to win this election fair and square.

“They are the ones that have lost five governors, they are the ones that can’t get their party leaders to come to their rallies at their presidential inauguration. We don’t have that challenge, we are working slowly but surely, as one together, everybody is coming together and I am very proud to be part of this,” he said.

Fani-Kayode said that the meeting which also had the four media directorates of the PCC in attendance, clarified all pending issues concerning the commencement of the 2023 presidential campaign. He added that the party and the PCC was working in unity with the objective of winning the 2023 presidential election with a land slide, saying that the APC was not in a rush to commence campaigns.

“We have a very strong team, very strong candidate, very strong governors, very strong party input and leadership and that PCC is waxing strong,” he said.

Mr Festus Keyamo, also a spokesman of the APC PCC while reacting to the allegation, said there had been absolutely no occasion that the party either by its National Working Committee (NWC) or any of its level of leadership put any kind of pressure on INEC.

He said the allegation was being peddled by those who were sensing defeat in the 2023 general election.

“They are already looking for reasons for that defeat, that is one of the reasons they are trying to generate to accommodate their defeat, because they know that their defeat is eminent,” he stressed.

October 12, 2022
2023: Labour Party boasts of 15 million votes

Labour Party (LP) on Wednesday unveiled a 1,234-member presidential campaign council in Abuja, boasting that the party will secure at least 15 million votes in the 2023 presidential election.

Unveiling the team, the Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Doyin Okupe said retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Zarewa, would serve as its chairman.

Some of the members are Mr Oseloka Obaze, who would serve as Deputy Director-General and Campaign Manager, and Alhaji Yusuf Maitama, Deputy Director-General (North).

Also in the council are Mr Yunusa Tanko, Spokesperson and Mr Clement Ojukwu, Secretary.

Mr Denzel Ketenbe is Deputy Director-General (South); Mr Isaac Balami, Deputy Campaign Manager 1, and Mrs Eyitemi Taire, Deputy Campaign Manager 3, among others.

Okupe noted that took 12 million votes for the incumbent president to win the presidential election in 2019 and that the Labour Party already had 15 million votes on ground.

“As we begin the 2023 round of electioneering campaigns, the registered voter population figure has tripled since 2019. More than 60 per cent of the nearly 100 million registered voters today are the youths.

“This shows that there are more new voters in the voter register than old ones, and all the newly-registered voters are `OBIdients’.

“It is just for us to pray for life till the elections; we will show them. Nigeria is a youthful stream and they are ready to support all the way,’’ Okupe said.

He added that the Peter Obi and Dr Datti Baba-Ahmed LP ticket had been lovingly and organically accepted by the people of Nigeria, because of their robust and endearing records, personalities, vision, policies and promise.

Okupe said also that the most remarkable, organic, self-funded movement at the vanguard of the political temperature in present time – the New Nigeria Movement, is made up of the youth population.

He stressed that the movement had taken on a life of its own and had become an unprecedented and formidable force in Nigeria’s national equation, beyond all imagination.

He added that the ascendancy of LP’s presidential ticket to prime position in the hearts and minds of Nigerians had been fuelled by the patriotic zeal, creativity and shining example in discipline, character and decency of Obi and Datti.

“Unknown to many, a significant number of the youth and drivers of this movement are active members and supporters of the other political parties.

“These are people who could not ignore the overbearing superiority in leadership quality, personal disposition, national appeal, private and public service record, and the clear-cut expression of vision and governance solutions of Obi and Datti.

“I make bold to say while the reality is becoming clearer to everyone, that these are the people who will decide the immediate future of this country,’’ he said.

Okupe stressed that the key message of the New Nigeria Movement also known as the `Take Back Nigeria Movement’ and more popularly as `The Obidient Movement’, signposts what people should give serious attention to.

He said that this was necessary because the bedrock of democracy is peoples’ power; and the most resourceful and powerful manifestation of this is the youth segment.

He said LP had not spent a kobo to organise, influence, or secure the massive following and support it had been getting from the Obidient Movement, till date.

“We in the Obi-Datti Presidential Organisation and the Labour Party, are totally and graciously humbled by this massive adoption of our candidates, as the preferred candidates for the forthcoming election,’’ he said.

Okupe assured Nigerians that the party and its candidates would remain committed to honest, clean and issue-based engagements to turn around the fortunes of the nation.

He appealed to security agencies, the Judiciary, retired military and police officers, the middle class, civil servants, professional bodies, pensioners, the academia and religious bodies not to be complacent during elections.

“To INEC we say, this is its biggest test in recent history, and it has no choice but to act as a fair, impartial, fearless and patriotic umpire at the coming elections,’’ he said.

According to Okupe LP is fully committed and totally reenergised to making Nigeria work, and progressively develop.

“Hold us to our word, that The Labour Party presidency of Peter Obi and Datti will cut wastage, and take bold steps to move Nigeria from consumption to production.

“Within four years, the Obi-Datti administration will embark on an aggressive investment drive in practicable smart agriculture,’’ he said.

He therefore called on Nigerians to leave no PVC uncollected and also to turn out en-masse on Election Day.

The chairman of the party, Julius Abure, represented by its National Secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk, said the party carefully compiled the campaign list to give the best to Nigerians.

“The party’s logo stands with the family and Nigeria can only be a better country when the family is united and benefiting from the leadership for the people and by the people.

“This is what we hope and pray our principal and the campaign council are going to work assiduously and sincerely to bring in a new hub for a better Nigeria that everybody is yearning for.

“These people unveiled today will make history and make Nigeria a better place where everyone will wish to stay,’’ he said.

October 12, 2022
2023: Buhari reduces chances of other parties, says no alternative to APC’s victory

President Muhammadu Buhari has reduced the chances of other political parties in the 2023 elections, saying there is no alternative to the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the elections.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that President Buhari made this known at the inauguration of the APC Women Presidential Campaign Team in Abuja on Monday.

While stressing that there was no alternative to APC electoral victory in the 2023 presidential election, the President challenged the APC women’s campaign team to work hard in ensuring victory for the party in the 2023 general elections.

Buhari, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari enjoined members of the team to take the party to greater heights by developing and implementing a collective an inclusive party strategy for smooth victory in the elections.

He described the inauguration of the APC women’s presidential campaign committee as the most crucial component of the 2023 campaign.

”To this end, I call on all members of this committee to take on this great responsibility as a testament of your selfless service to the APC.

”I strongly believe that this committee will take the APC to greater heights by developing and implementing a collective inclusive party strategy to ensure a PCS victory in the 2023 election because there is no alternative to our victory,” he said.

The president, who congratulated all members of the committee and the leadership of the party for the laudable initiative, wished the team a successful campaign season.

He, however, warned that the team must always be guided by the fact that their mission would involve going round the whole wards in the 774 Local Government Areas of the Federation campaigning for the party.

”The mission that lays ahead for the Committee’s is very clear, and time is not on your side. As this lunch is being hosted in Abuja, we must remember that the real work lies in far places, away from Abuja.

”The task at hand lies in over 1000 wards, and 774 local governments across the country where a party faithful will have to make a case before fellow citizens on our party’s candidate by articulating the vision and the programme for the country.

”The campaign should therefore resist the temptation for it to be turned into an Abuja activity,” he added.

The president also lauded the Nigerian women for their sacrifices and loyalty to the party

He said: ”Throughout my political journey, and my tenure, as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, women have remained the most loyal, the most supportive group in my mission for a better Nigeria.”

Buhari, therefore, charged the women to extend the same support he had been enjoying from them to the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, and the vice presidential candidate, kashim Shettima, as well as other APC candidates during and after the 2023 general elections.

The president also directed the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, in conjunction with the Minister of Women Affairs, to work closely with the office of the First Lady and the National Assembly to ensure the passage of bills aimed at creating level playing field for Nigerian women.

The APC Women Presidential campaignTeam is being headed by the wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari.

October 10, 2022
2023: How togetherness will help Nigeria – Bishop Kaigama

The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama urged Nigerians to unite in choosing credible political leaders in the 2023 general elections.

Kaigama made the appeal on Sunday while delivering a homily at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Kugbo, Abuja.

The cleric urged Nigerians to set aside their differences, come together to evolve permanent solutions to all the ‘’wahala’’ in the country by electing credible and compassionate leaders in 2023.

“In the ugly situation of our country, we must be united, particularly in making wise political choices because God can take away the socio-economic and political leprosy in the country and the only way we can ensure this happens is by using the ballot,’’ he said.

Reading from Bible which is taken from the gospel of St. Luke, the Archbishop noted the need for Nigerians to eschew divisive tendencies and bond just like the lepers did.

“Let us follow the example of the Jewish and Samaritan lepers who set aside their differences and came together to find a solution to their leprosy.

“The gospel narrates how the Jews and Samaritans never came together and never saw eye to eye on anything just like how it is in some parts of our country where some people believe that they are better than others.

“However, because of the disease of leprosy, the Jews and Samaritans came together.

“This is how ‘wahala’ can bring us together. I have seen that ‘wahala’ has been plenty for us in this country: Poverty, insecurity, corruption and so much suffering,” he said.

He further said “You go to school you cannot graduate, you finish school, no work, you hear about snakes swallowing money, monkeys taking money and termites eating vouchers.

“All these are ‘wahala’ and so they should bind us together, it should make us unite like the lepers.

“They came together and achieved a common good so when we are together, we will be able to make better choices in the coming elections.

“Let us join together like the lepers did, they came together and found a solution to their problem.

“So if we come together, we will find solutions to our collective problems in the country by electing leaders who will address these problems,’’ Kaigama said.

He recalled how the COVID-19 pandemic united the whole world, noting that the unity made it easier to find a quick solution to tackle the pandemic.

‘’Look at the COVID-19 pandemic, see how people came together irrespective of class, clime, tribe or religion and found a solution and the pandemic has reduced,” he said.

He, however, cautioned that people should not develop amnesia once they had gotten solutions to their problems.

‘’We are quick to forget the good that happens to us. When something good happens to us, we get amnesia but for the bad things, we never forget.

“So we should say today that we will not develop amnesia but we will remember everything and stop focusing on the bad things that happened to us from January to December,” he said.

He urged Nigerians not to sit and fold their hands and keep complaining of how bad the situation in the country is but to look for solutions to some of these problems.

“In the face of general hardship we tend to cause the darkness instead of lighting a candle.

“Things are bad but must we focus on the bad things and make it our national anthem?’’ he asked.

He noted the need to show gratitude for the good things that happen to us and to also show gratitude and appreciate those who assist us in one way or another.

“We must show gratitude even to the house maids, the gatemen and other stewards in the house.

“The house girl should also be treated as a daughter, she should be shown gratitude and appreciated for the work she does in spite of the fact that you brought her to serve and you pay her.

“She is a fellow Christian like you so tell her thank you as it will not remove anything from you,” the bishop said.

He also cautioned elected leaders against showing ‘’scandalous gratitude’’, adding that, “we must have love, unity and forgiveness to achieve our desired goals as a nation”.

One of the highpoints of the mass was the Sacrament of Confirmation administered on 148 candidates and the inauguration of the Church’s grotto.

The Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Cyprian Imandeh and Priest in Residence, Rev. Fr Emmanuel Nyinya, appreciated the archbishop for honouring the parish with his presence.

He said that the visit would further strengthen the spiritual lives of the parishioners.

October 10, 2022
#NigeriaDecides2023: Campaign promises and the issue of trust – By Dakuku Peterside

Most societies do not trust their politicians, so it is not an anomaly peculiar to Nigeria. Whether it is an advanced democracy or a developing country does not make any difference. For instance, 63% of British people believed their politicians were mainly interested in themselves alone, according to the IPPR think tank poll conducted in 2021. Also, in another survey, 60% of Australians rank the politicians very low on the issues of honesty and integrity. Similarly, in the US, a 2021 Gallup poll showed that 60% of Americans do not have confidence in their politicians. A 2013 study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) pointed out that the people’s trust in politicians in India hit an all-time low that year.

However, the case of Nigerians and trust in their politicians seems to decline with every cycle of elections since 1999. An extreme trust deficit hovers over Nigerian politicians, and the public hardly believes in the campaign promises or even the commitment made by politicians. Much of the trust deficit links to the fact that there is no mechanism of political accountability in the country. Even when one is in place, politicians and even institutions that are supposed to enforce this usually undermine it.

The 2023 elections present a unique situation for the average Nigerian voter to confront the issue of trust deficit among the political class. Nigerians have run out of patience in trusting their politicians and those who hold public office on their behalf. There are five significant reasons why the average Nigerian citizen and voter cannot trust politicians.

First, politicians have failed to keep to their many promises over time . A critical look at the campaign promises since the 1979 elections reveals that the themes and promises are the same: that of bringing about food sufficiency, constant electricity, pipe-borne water, the building of roads, coupled with the provision of quality education and healthcare . From the post-1999 political period till date, we can add to this list issues of security, employment creation through industralisation, fighting corruption, and fixing the economy, and the cocktail of promises would have been complete. I bet you that these will be the same issues and promises in the 2023 elections.

Politicians have never kept any of these promises properly, none of which has been truly addressed and eliminated from the list of developmental challenges. The trend is as if, immediately after elections, politicians forget or even deny their promises. Many of our basic infrastructure are non-existent or in total disrepair. Youth unemployment is rife, despite the many promises of creating jobs and revamping social services, which are either non-functional or suboptimal. Issues of restructuring have featured in most election campaigns since the 1999 general elections, but despite all the promises by successive candidates, we are still at the same point talking about the same issues since then.

Second, the inconsistency of politicians is legendary and often borders on creative lies and propaganda. Nigerian politicians change parties like the asoebi changes of bridal clothes during traditional wedding ceremonies. The politics of supremacy of personal interests has killed any serious ideological underpinnings of any of the political parties.

Politicians have turned parties into vehicles to struggle for power without any enduring attachment to ideals, philosophies, and ideologies. On policy issues, one hardly ever knows where politicians and office holders stand. Besides, when issues of national importance arise, politicians flip-flop from one opinion or stance to another in alignment with their personal interests. For instance, many Northern politicians, especially PDP presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, supported the zoning issue in 2011 but opposed it in the 2019 and 2022 primaries because it favours them and the North.

Third, many campaign promises have no precise details on how to accomplish them. Politicians create soundbites and colourful proclamations on massive projects they promise to build to improve the lives and material conditions of citizens. However, the politicians do not provide information on the feasibility or viability of these projects. They do not provide details on how and where they will get the funds for the project, who will oversee the project, the cost- benefit analysis, and who will benefit from it. What are the opportunity costs of the project, and how is the project linked to other projects to provide a system of infrastructure that supports economic sustainability and growth?

Fourth, the average politician is a chameleon who change his/her persona during and after elections. The best time to easily access politicians is when they are canvassing for votes. They show an openness that surprises their worst critics and communicate compassionately and purposefully during election campaigns. However, immediately after the elections, these politicians become inaccessible and unapproachable, whether they win or not. It even becomes worse when they win an elective position because they become far removed from the people, and overzealous security officers and their entourages guard them heavily. Engagement with the people becomes rare once in office. They are far removed from the people they govern and only communicate with them formally through the traditional and social media. Little wonder that there is a disconnect and lack of trust between politicians and the people.

Finally, there is opaqueness in the conducts of individual politicians, the party and government affairs. This opaqueness breeds disunity and hatred even within the party. The fluidity of the conflict of interest between powerful interest groups and government officials leads to scandals, the reign of innuendos and rumours that bedevil trust and faith in the political system and politicians. This partly accounts for why the two major parties in Nigeria are facing deep internal crisis and tensions today.

The difference between the Nigerian situation and politicians of other climes is that a more enlightened civil society can hold politicians accountable for their campaign promises by keeping an inventory of these promises and asking questions of politicians during campaigns and even after elections; how much will the proposed projects cost? Where the funds will come from? What are their real impacts and how will they contribute to improving the quality of living of the people? Only by interrogating and engaging the campaign promises of politicians will we start the process of holding them accountable.

Nigerians must demand a rejigging of the governance structure that must embrace results – performance benchmarks, targets, timelines, achievable goals, and milestones. A result-oriented governance approach emphasises process and outcomes, whilst deemphasising ordinary rhetoric and promises not backed with actions.

For the political class, political communication and marketing must be less of fact spinning and framing political messages to confuse or deceive the people. The political language should become less vague and empty. All politicians must strive to be honourable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. Politicians always on the receiving end of the trust deficit must learn the benefit of facts, figures, statistics, historical patterns, trends, and time limits. These will assist them in addressing the trust deficit.

All politicians in Nigeria must strive to let the 2023 elections give us something new to place our hopes and aspirations in. They must be open to
being held accountable for their promises. Let the candidates speak for themselves on all key policy issues and not through some spokespersons they will later deny as being unauthorised to make commitments and decisions on their behalf. This is the time to ask candidates for the finer details of vague campaign promises and to ensure that candidates keep their promises and commitments, and that none should or can take Nigerians for granted again.

We hope the INEC is ready to painstakingly officiate a free and fair election in the 2023 general election according to the provisions of the amended Electoral Act. The more the polls are credible, the more legitimate and trustworthy that politicians will look and become.
Voters must be ready to track inventories of campaign promises to hold politicians accountable for their promises. They should act decisively when they know politicians are taking them on rides and abandoning their
promises. The people must create platforms to continuously engage political office holders, and were anyone is not acting in the overall interest of the people, they could initiate the process of recalling such a person from the
Assembly, if s/he is a legislator, petition higher office holders about such a politician, embark on media campaigns against the politician, and ultimately, vote out the politician in the next election cycle. This will serve as deterrence for politicians from making promises they have no intention or plan of keeping.

Although Nigeria is not unique in lacking trust for politicians, the people use even stronger languages than in most climes to describe these politicians, who are all lumped within the category of dubious thieves and liars. There is a pervading sense of hopelessness when politicians fail to keep their campaign promises and neglect the people with utmost impunity. The general elections of 2023 are a make or mar election in a generation.

Preliminary findings thus far are indicating meaningful youth engagement during the early stages of the campaign; therefore, this is a clarion call and a call of duty to all influential Nigerians to check the campaign promises against the odds and realities of affordability, sustainability, and practical value, especially when the opportunity costs are calculated. Let’s sincerely hope that the 2023 general elections will herald a new dawn in electioneering campaigns dominated by issues-based debates, while campaign promises are interrogated and situatied within the current economic situations and realities, locally and internationally, in the hope that the best candidates win the elections to liberate Nigerians.

October 10, 2022