From Tony Osauzo, Benin
As the zero hour to the election approaches, the political parties and candidates preparing for the polls have adopted various methods of campaigning to drive home their messages to the people at the grassroots.
From the open campaign strategy in public arena, the campaigns are now being intensified, with the candidates and their agents focussing more now on personal contacts with influential individuals, groups and associations.
An appraisal of the campaigns so far, show that many of the candidates and their political parties engaged in mere recriminations and outright peddling of falsehood to score cheap political point against their opponents, rather than campaign on issues by telling the electorate the programmes they have for them and how they intend to carry out such programmes in the face of dwindling oil revenues.
The essence of political campaigns by political parties and their candidates is to explain their manifestos to the electorate to enable them make informed choices and based on their understanding of the issues canvassed, they cast their vote or ballot for their preferred candidate or party on election day.
In many of the campaigns, this essential ingredient was lost, as many of the candidates and their parties rather than clarify the issues in the election, confused the electorate with campaign of calumny, leaving them in a position they will find it difficult to decide which party or candidate to vote for. This is moreso, because majority of the Nigerian electorate are highly uninformed, flowing from the high level of illiteracy in the country.
The result has been that voting has largely been based on sentiment of ethnicity, religious affiliation and financial inducement and not on the basis of the electorate understanding the issues articulated during political campaigns.
Here lies the danger in our political evolution as people who ‘seek power for power sake’ are voted into office, only for the electorate to start complaining later that the people they voted for are not performing.
This is where the voters need to beware that election is not about rewarding your church member who is a candidate with your vote even when you know that he lacks the capacity to perform in office, nor election about supporting someone from your ethnic stock, or a candidate who gave you money, with your vote.
It is a conscious hard decision the voter must make, based on his/her assessment of the candidates and settling for the one that would most make impact on society in terms of providing good governance that would translate to development, creating enabling environment for citizens to realise their full potential and meeting Bentham’s Utilitarian principle of ensuring the “greatest good for the greatest number in the society”.
Election, indeed, is a decision we make about our future through our ballot on the day of voting. If we get it right, we rejoice but if we get it wrong by electing someone who is unimaginative, who cannot think ahead and proffer solutions to our problems, we stay and regret with complaints for another four years when we will have the opportunity to go over the process again.
Through periodic elections, we hold our destinies in our hands and we either fail or achieve our goals depending on how we exercise our votes!
As the political parties and candidates are set to conclude their campaigns in the next few days, they still have the opportunity to clarify their messages in a manner that should appeal to the consciences of voters, they should avoid abusive language and tell the electorate their programmes.
The electorate should also know that while they are the bride the political parties and their candidates are seeking after, they carry a heavy burden of using their valued tool -voter cards to make the right decision for the progress of Edo State to their personal happiness!
Next week, we shall give you the arithmetic of how the election will be won and lost.