The campaigns for the 2027 general election are officially on, and it has been three weeks since the field was thrown open for action. But not so much seems to be happening, as the politicians appear to be taking their time. This was not the case in 2023. At this time in that year’s electoral cycle, the political temper was different, and the campaign grounds across the country had assumed the energy of a gravitational force. Both the candidates and their supporters were everywhere, up and alive. They were not taking any chances, worsening the toxicity of the campaign landscape, its strategies and language. At this time in the campaigns, Nigerians were in the firm grip of rising fuel prices and long vehicular queues at fuel stations that had persisted for most of the previous two years.
Then–Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele had started his ruinous experiment with the lives of Nigerians with his naira redesign policy that made the chances of the APC presidential candidate not only herculean but also more untenable as a member of the ruling party. We are nowhere close to the feverish condition of that time, just three months to a presidential election that an opposition in confused inertia has vowed to take and framed as a contest between the ruling party and Nigerians. Which somewhat gestures to their irrelevance in the contest and their acceptance of the situation. What has happened so far seems like a dress rehearsal for the main event. This is stating it charitably. Otherwise, the key stakeholders in the race to 2027 appear exhausted before the campaigns have taken off.
Of all the political parties contesting, the All Progressives Congress is, without doubt, the most prepared. Its membership register was ready before the deadline for its submission, and it is the only party that has announced candidates for all 28 states that will be participating in the general election. Others struggled and actually sought and got deadline extensions before they could get their membership registers together. Thus far, most of them have no governorship candidates in most of the states for the election. The Nigeria Democratic Congress, for example, has less than half the number of candidates it requires to fill its slots across the states. The implication of this structural deficiency has been pointed out and is obvious to every Nigerian except members of the NDC and their presidential candidate, who is forever blind to the demands of supporting his political effort with appropriate structures.
“Structure of criminality,” he calls it. In his usual way of making vacuous promises, he last week in Port Harcourt vowed to make himself a martyr of democracy and is urging others to join him. He does not build but is capable of appropriating the structures built by other politicians. Yet, he expects miracles to happen at the polls and is the first to raise accusations of electoral heist when the outcome of his poor preparation stares him in the face. We wait to see what happens next, now that even his running mate in 2023, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has declared him unfit to be president. Hardly can Nigerians find any of this man’s former close associates that have faith in him. But as far as active canvassing for votes through the campaigns goes, even the APC has been doing less than could be expected. The attitude of its presidential flagbearer appears to have set the tone for the campaigns in this season. The political arena was no sooner declared open for the campaigns than President Bola Tinubu left the country on a three-week vacation. One would have imagined this was the opportunity for the opposition parties to seize the moment to sell their candidates to Nigerians. But they have been fast asleep and are apparently waiting for Tinubu to return to declare the race on. What more evidence is there to show that the opposition hardly knows what to do when the ruling party is not pointing them in the direction to go? You can see that even in their names. The leading parties have all now taken the “congress” tag—all to diminishing significance—(“All”, “African”, “Nigeria”): All Progressives Congress, African Democratic Congress, Nigeria Democratic Congress!
They take their cue from the APC and only wait and hope that it will lose an electoral contest than actively try to defeat it. This was what happened during last month’s governorship election in Osun State. Most of the political parties were mere bystanders who watched as the leading candidates went head to head. In the end, they were delirious with joy that the APC lost rather than rejoicing that they had participated vigorously in the election and their effort had been rewarded with victory. The APC’s loss rather than their own victory was the source of their joy. They had surrendered before the gun went off for the race and were more satisfied with their spoiler role than with the victory of their own party. This is sorcery and witchcraft rolled into one. Which still leaves us with the question of why the opposition parties are sitting on their palms and gaping at the campaigns field without action.
Is it truly the case that they are not campaigning? Of course, they are campaigning. But they are doing this “on the low”. With hardly any of the opposition candidates or their parties in control of any state, there are no funds to throw around. What gives the political parties the steam to run on are the financial war chests provided by governors, and only the APC has that in full measure now, unlike in 2023. Without funds, political parties work but in vain; forget the no-shishi apostasy. And it is mostly the governors that make this happen. Otherwise, only candidates willing to spend their own funds can make headway. Which is why it is only ADC’s Atiku Abubakar that seems to be making a splash in a fishpond.
The funds at Alhaji Abubakar’s disposal have been directed at burnishing his personal image and making him saleable to Nigerians and the rest of the world. He has spent more than one and a half million dollars on an American lobbying and image-laundering group to improve his image while opening old case files to see if he could find enough dirt to smear the main obstacle to what is obviously his last shot at the presidency—President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This man has apparently not been losing sleep over Atiku’s antics. He has been vacationing abroad at the unacceptable age of 90, where his young rival is at 80, getting set to mount a throne that is fully occupied by an incumbent, except God says otherwise.
The post The lackluster campaigns for 2027, by Rotimi Fasan appeared first on Vanguard News.