![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG-20261025-WA00871.jpg\")
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
But the opening act, particularly the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign flag-off in Kaduna, appears to have raised a disturbing question: <\/p>\n
Are Nigeria\u2019s political parties going into the general elections without manifestos and, consequently, without a social contract with the electorate?<\/p>\n
The Kaduna gathering provided the first major opportunity for the ruling party to present its political case to Nigerians. Yet, rather than witnessing a detailed presentation of a comprehensive manifesto setting out what the APC intends to do in another term, much of the political conversation revolved around responding to allegations from the opposition and defending the record of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.<\/p>\n
For political pundits, Nigerians waiting for the parties to unveil convincing manifestos may be embarking on another version of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot\u2014waiting for something that may never come.<\/p>\n
This is not merely a question of campaign literature. A manifesto is supposed to be the foundation of the relationship between a political party and the electorate. It tells voters what a party intends to do if entrusted with power and provides a basis upon which citizens can judge its performance.<\/p>\n
In that sense, a manifesto is more than a collection of campaign promises. It represents a social contract between the political class and the electorate.<\/p>\n
The absence of such a contract leaves voters with little more than personalities, slogans, rallies, accusations and counter-accusations.<\/p>\n
That appears to be what the Kaduna campaign flag-off exposed.<\/p>\n
Rather than a battle of competing ideas and policy alternatives, the emerging campaign is increasingly taking the form of political theatre, with the actors spending more time attacking opponents, defending their records and responding to allegations.<\/p>\n
The ruling APC, for instance, has been compelled to devote significant attention to allegations concerning the performance of the Tinubu administration, particularly issues surrounding poverty, insecurity and the economic hardship confronting Nigerians.<\/p>\n
President Tinubu’s appearance in Kaduna consequently became as much an exercise in defending the administration as it was an opportunity to sell a new political agenda to the electorate.<\/p>\n
The development raises an important question: If the APC is seeking another mandate, what precisely is the social contract it is offering Nigerians for the next four years?<\/p>\n
Is it a continuation of the policies of the first term? Is it a modified version of the administration’s economic reforms? Or is there a new programme designed to address the consequences and criticisms that have emerged from those policies?<\/p>\n
The electorate deserves clear answers.
\nThe same question applies to the opposition.<\/p>\n
It is not enough for opposition parties to tell Nigerians that the APC has failed. They must explain what they intend to do differently, how they intend to do it and, crucially, how they intend to finance their promises.<\/p>\n
The electorate cannot be expected to choose between one set of accusations and another.
\nIt needs choices.
\nIt needs policies.
\nIt needs measurable targets.
\nIt needs to know what each political party would do about unemployment, insecurity, inflation, the cost of living, education, healthcare, infrastructure, energy, agriculture and the country’s growing debt obligations.<\/p>\n
Instead, the campaign environment appears increasingly dominated by allegations and their denials.<\/p>\n
Barely 24 hours before the Kaduna flag-off, for instance, social media was awash with an allegation that Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani had written to the Presidential Campaign Council requesting a staggering \u20a63.8 trillion for the campaign flag-off.
\nThe allegation generated considerable attention.<\/p>\n
Dele Alake, spokesman for the Presidential Campaign Council, subsequently denied the purported request.<\/p>\n
The Kaduna State Government also reacted, accusing the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of allegedly planting the story on social media in an attempt to discredit the APC.<\/p>\n
Whether the allegation was politically motivated or simply another piece of misinformation, the episode was significant because it illustrated the nature of the campaign environment that is emerging.<\/p>\n
An allegation is made.
\nA denial follows.
\nAn opponent is blamed.
\nThe political temperature rises.<\/p>\n
But the electorate is left without answers to the fundamental questions about governance.<\/p>\n
For the APC, the episode also carried a familiar sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, given the growing use of social media as a battlefield for political allegations and counter-allegations.<\/p>\n
Yet, beyond the controversy surrounding the alleged \u20a63.8 trillion request lies a more fundamental problem.
\nWhere is the manifesto?<\/p>\n
The 2027 election should not merely be a referendum on personalities or a contest over which political party can mobilise the largest crowd.<\/p>\n
It should be a contest over the future direction of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the early signs suggest that the political parties may be preparing for an election without sufficiently defining the obligations they intend to assume towards the people.<\/p>\n
This is dangerous for democracy.
\nA social contract requires both sides to understand their responsibilities. The political party seeking power makes commitments to the electorate, while voters exercise their democratic authority based, at least in part, on those commitments.
\nWhen parties do not present clear programmes, politicians can make virtually any promise during campaigns and later claim that circumstances prevented implementation.<\/p>\n
There is then no measurable standard against which their performance can be judged.<\/p>\n
This has been one of the enduring weaknesses of Nigeria’s electoral politics.<\/p>\n
Manifestos are often launched with considerable fanfare during election campaigns but become almost irrelevant once politicians secure power. Policies subsequently emerge through government decisions that voters did not necessarily vote for or understand at the time of the election.<\/p>\n
The consequence is a widening disconnect between the electorate and those elected to govern.<\/p>\n
The 2027 election presents an opportunity to reverse that trend.
\nThe APC, as the ruling party, has the responsibility to tell Nigerians what another Tinubu term would look like beyond the rhetoric of continuity and the defence of its record.<\/p>\n
The opposition parties equally have a responsibility to present credible alternatives rather than relying exclusively on the failures or controversies of the incumbent government.<\/p>\n
Nigerians should not be asked to vote simply because one candidate is less unpopular than another.<\/p>\n
They should be offered a choice between competing visions of the Nigerian state.
\nThe Kaduna campaign flag-off, therefore, should not be judged merely by the size of the crowd or the political speeches delivered from the podium.<\/p>\n
Its real significance lies in what it failed to provide: a sufficiently detailed and compelling social contract between the political party and the electorate.
\nThe 2027 election should be about more than who wants power.<\/p>\n
It should be about what those seeking power intend to do with it.<\/p>\n
Until the political parties answer that question through credible, measurable and implementable manifestos, the Nigerian electorate may be heading towards an election in which the actors have assembled, the campaign stages have been erected and the political drama has begun\u2014but the contract between the politicians and the people remains unwritten.<\/p>\n
The Kaduna theatre has opened. The actors are on stage. But where is the script\u2014the manifesto\u2014that tells Nigerians what comes after the applause?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Abdullateef Bamgbose Nigerians waited with bated anticipation as political actors and parties took centre stage following the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to lift the ban on political campaigns ahead of the 2027 general elections. But the opening act, particularly the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign flag-off in Kaduna, appears to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19026,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19017\/revisions\/19026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}