AS NIGERIA approaches the 2027 General Elections, political parties and candidates have another opportunity to improve the quality of the country’s democratic debate. The campaigns should be contests of ideas, policies and measurable programmes, not festivals of insults, ethnic appeals, religious sentiment, personality cults and character assassination.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the Notice of Election and Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the elections in February 2026 and subsequently issued a revised timetable. Under the Electoral Act 2026, public campaigns are to begin 150 days before polling and end 24 hours before voting.
When ideas disappear from campaigns, personal attacks often take their place. Allegations and counter-allegations replace policy arguments, while private matters and unverified rumours become political weapons.
When campaigning begins, Nigerians should demand more than rallies, slogans, posters, music and choreographed media appearances. Those seeking the privilege of exercising public power must explain clearly what they intend to do with it.
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The central question should not be who is the most popular, charismatic or politically powerful candidate, but who has the clearest, most realistic and accountable programme for improving the lives of Nigerians.
The purpose of election campaign is to help citizens make informed choices. Presidential candidates must explain how they intend to address inflation, unemployment, public debt and the cost of living. They should present credible plans for security, electricity, agriculture, education, healthcare, taxation, infrastructure, industrial development and technology.
Governorship candidates should explain how they will increase internally generated revenue without imposing excessive burdens on citizens and businesses. They must also present realistic plans for healthcare, education, roads, investment, jobs, community security and local government administration.
Candidates for the National and State Houses of Assembly should demonstrate an understanding of their constitutional roles. They should tell constituents what legislation they intend to support and how they will fulfil their responsibilities of representation, law-making and oversight.
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These are the issues that should dominate rallies, debates, interviews, town halls, political advertisements and media coverage. A candidate’s ethnicity, religion, ancestry or private quarrels will not create jobs, build roads or improve hospitals and schools. Public problems require public policies.
Elections have greater meaning when voters can compare competing ideas. If candidates offer different approaches to insecurity, economic management or education. Citizens should be able to examine those proposals and decide which is more credible.
When elections become personality contests, popularity and propaganda they will overshadow competence and policy. A country confronting insecurity, economic hardship, infrastructure deficits and institutional weakness cannot afford an electoral process in which image replaces substance.
Issue-based campaigns also strengthen accountability. A candidate who promises specific roads, schools, healthcare reforms or measurable economic targets can later be judged against those commitments.
Manifestos should therefore cease to be ceremonial documents published during campaigns and forgotten after elections. They should become public contracts against which governments are assessed.
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The Electoral Act 2026 provides another reason campaigns should focus on issues. Section 96 restricts abusive and inflammatory language capable of injuring religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings or provoking violent reactions.
Section 101 also prohibits campaigning or broadcasting on religious, tribal or sectional grounds for the purpose of promoting or opposing a candidate or political party, subject to prescribed penalties.
These provisions are particularly important in a diverse country such as Nigeria. Political competition is not a licence to inflame ethnic suspicion, exploit religious differences or destroy reputations.
The proper question is not where a candidate comes from, but what the candidate intends to do, whether he or she has the capacity to do it and whether the programme is constitutional, realistic and in the public interest.
When ideas disappear from campaigns, personal attacks often take their place. Allegations and counter-allegations replace policy arguments, while private matters and unverified rumours become political weapons.
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Social media has intensified this danger. False accusations, manipulated images and misleading videos can spread nationwide within minutes and be transformed into hashtags and memes before those affected can respond.
Nigeria’s real opponents are insecurity, poverty, unemployment, inflation, inadequate infrastructure, weak healthcare, declining educational standards, corruption and institutional weakness. Candidates should tell Nigerians how they intend to confront these problems. They should identify priorities, quantify promises, establish realistic timelines, explain funding sources, defend their records and demonstrate competence.
This does not mean character is irrelevant. Anyone seeking public office should expect scrutiny of integrity, competence, temperament, conflicts of interest and previous performance.
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But there is a difference between examining character where it affects fitness for office and exploiting private matters merely to humiliate an opponent. The first strengthens democracy; the second degrades it.
Nigerians must also resist turning candidates into symbols of ethnic, regional or religious struggle. Elections should determine who administers public institutions for a constitutional period; they should not become wars between communities.
Candidates must move beyond generic promises to “create jobs”, “fight corruption”, “secure Nigeria” or “transform education”. Nigerians should ask: How will it be done? When will it be achieved? What will it cost? Where will the money come from?
Candidates must also understand the constitutional limits of the offices they seek. Presidential candidates proposing reforms requiring constitutional amendments should explain the process. Governors should not promise functions outside state powers, while legislative candidates should not campaign as though lawmakers possess executive authority.
Politicians should not be rewarded for promising what they lack the legal authority or financial capacity to deliver.
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Political parties must become more than vehicles for individual ambitions. They should represent identifiable principles, economic choices and coherent programmes of government.
Parties should publish understandable manifestos, properly cost major proposals and prepare candidates to defend their policies publicly. A serious party should explain not only who it wants Nigerians to vote for, but what it stands for.
The media also has a decisive responsibility. Editors, broadcasters and online publishers should resist amplifying insults simply because controversy generates traffic and engagement.
Journalists should redirect political debate towards security, inflation, education, healthcare, jobs and governance. They should revisit previous promises, expose contradictions, compare manifestos and test proposals for legality, affordability and practicality.
Section 99 of the Electoral Act also provides, among other things, for equal allocation of media time among political parties or candidates in public electronic media and equal coverage and visibility in public print media.
Election journalism should help citizens make informed decisions, not merely amplify political confrontation.
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Politicians often provide the kind of politics voters reward. If Nigerians celebrate insults more than solutions, politicians will produce more insults. If ethnic rhetoric wins votes, campaign strategists will continue exploiting identity. Citizens must demand a higher standard.
At debates, rallies and town halls, voters should ask specific questions. Professional bodies, universities, labour organisations, civil society groups, youth and women’s associations, religious institutions and business organisations should create platforms where candidates explain and defend their programmes.
Nigerians should compare manifestos, not memes. Supporters must also be willing to question their preferred candidates. Democracy requires independent judgement, not unquestioning political loyalty.
Nigeria’s challenges cannot be solved by propaganda, personality cults, ethnic mobilisation, religious sentiment or character assassination.
The 2027 elections should become a national marketplace of ideas. Candidates should debate taxation, policing, restructuring, education, healthcare, electricity, agriculture, technology, infrastructure and economic policy. Incumbents should defend their records and challengers should present credible alternatives.
Political disagreement is not the problem; democracy depends on disagreement. The danger arises when disagreement is replaced by abuse, prejudice, disinformation and identity warfare.
Nigeria’s real opponents are insecurity, poverty, unemployment, inflation, inadequate infrastructure, weak healthcare, declining educational standards, corruption and institutional weakness. Candidates should tell Nigerians how they intend to confront these problems. They should identify priorities, quantify promises, establish realistic timelines, explain funding sources, defend their records and demonstrate competence.
Nigeria deserves an election fought with ideas rather than insults, programmes rather than propaganda, competence rather than identity, and solutions rather than personalities. That is the kind of campaign that strengthens democracy and the standard Nigerians should demand in 2027.
Comrade Takor was a two-term President of NASU, a two-term National Treasurer of NLC and an inaugural member of the Board of PenCom. Takor retired as a Director in federal service and is now a legal practitioner based in Lagos. He is an alumnus of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru-Jos, Plateau State. He is currently the Vice Chairman/Chairman Human Rights Committee of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Epe Branch.
