By The Editorial Board
April 26, 2024
Nigerias electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday lifted the lid on public campaigns for the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, and political parties and their candidates have started making the right noises.
This is to be expected, given the criticality of election campaigns in a democracy.
Open Election Data Initiative describes election campaigns as the means by which candidates and political parties prepare and present their ideas and positions on issues to the voters in the period preceding election day.
In other words, election campaigns provide candidates and political parties with opportunities to present their message to citizens, helping voters make educated and informed decisions on election day.
But for election campaigns to serve this purpose, they have to be based on issues that affect the people. Candidates, if not their political parties, must show deep knowledge and understanding of the governance challenges that beset the state and clearly set out and discuss how they would tackle them if elected, to paraphrase Olu Fasan, a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE).
In an October 19, 2022 article in Vanguard Newspaper, Fasan argued that in more developed climes, political parties and candidates, sensitive and responsive to voters, set great store on investigating the issues facing their countries and proffering solutions in their manifestos.
In a participatory democracy, these enunciation of issues and offering of solutions are the basis of election campaigns and the underpinnings of the social contract between the elector and the elected. The consent of the governed, which is the real basis of true democracy, cannot be said to exist without credible and well-canvassed issue-based manifesto offers on which voters can make informed choices. Thats the essence of issue-based campaigns, Fasan said.
It is on the basis of the foregoing that we urge the candidates of the 17 political parties fielding candidates in the Edo 2024 governorship election, as well as the political parties themselves, to focus on issues as they traverse the length and breadth of the state to canvass for support and votes from the electorate. We urge them to shun all forms of calumny, mudslinging, gutter politics, electoral disinformation, misinformation, fake news, among others that tend to muddle up and obfuscate meaningful discourse.
Fortunately, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, has been singing a similar song, urging his opponents to embrace issue-based campaign and not dwell on inanities.
We will focus on issues. Edolities want to know and hear us talk about what we are bringing to the table to solve the problems of insecurity, poverty, infrastructure, and many more. We will make decorum our watchword, Ighodalo said in a statement issued by his media team in Benin City on Wednesday.
Therefore, I want to appeal to all the other political parties, and in particular, their candidates to please let us dwell on issues and not on inanities. We must do everything to avoid campaigns of calumny, character assassination, deliberately peddling falsehood against individuals, and trying to tie and link them to what they know nothing about.
We will be intentional in our campaigns by selling our manifesto to the electorate and persuading them to vote for us. We expect others to do the same. Lets refrain from attacking individuals and personalities and stop throwing dirt and mud on people because of their political persuasions.
If we all play by these rules, the atmosphere will be convivial for all of us and thus reduce the possibility of electoral hostilities and violence. We must bear in mind that we are brothers and sisters and all we want is the progress and development of our dear state, he said.
Also, while congratulating his All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) counterparts after the primary elections in February, Ighodalo urged them to join him in a commitment to focus on issue-based campaigns ahead of the 2024 governorship election.
I and my team will continue to campaign to the people of Edo State in language and behaviour that seek to unite rather than divide. We will stay focused on the issues that matter to our people; and there will be no descent into abuse, ethnic-baiting and name-calling. We must not destroy the unity of the State we seek to govern. I therefore urge all my fellow candidates to similarly run respectful issue-based campaigns, he said.
Thankfully, too, the APC governorship candidate, Monday Okpebholo, has assured Edo people of an issue-based campaign, listing quality and affordable healthcare, affordable and quality education, road infrastructure, security, food security, social welfare programmes, housing, ICT, agriculture, among others as the issues that would dominate his campaign.
The LP candidate, Olumide Akpata, appears not to have said anything in this regard. But in a post on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle (@OlumideAkpata) on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the candidate announced to his supporters that ahead of the commencement of public campaigns, he took some time off last weekend to refresh, recharge and strategise with his team on the best avenue(s) to convey our vision and our promise to place the people of Edo State at the heart of governance.
It is our considered view that this commitment to issue-based campaign is one that all the governorship candidates in the Edo 2024 election must make, not only in word but also in deed. Edo people have a choice to make come September 21, and they have a right to hear what each candidate is bringing to the table devoid of any form of distraction.
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The Nigerian Observer is a daily newspaper published in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, since 1968 by the Bendel Newspapers Company Limited (BNCL) and is owned by the Edo State Government
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