For political actors, there is frenzy in the atmosphere ahead of 2027 general election, what do you think about the current issues around the coming elections?
Like all human activities that require the involvement of a lot of people, two years is a short time. If you are trying to build a house to move in on May 29, 2027 and you have not bought the land by now, you can’t be sure that you will move into the house. That is just a small house for one person. And if you want to graduate from school to earn any degree and you have not gained admission by now, then you know you cannot graduate by that time. So, two years is not a long time when it comes to national planning and if you want to form a government, you need to persuade people to come and join you in the campaign. You need to tell them about your issues, you need to select those who agree with you and those who don’t agree with you. Then, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) timetable is what people should follow and the INEC timetable says that a candidate must emerge at least a year or about a year before the elections. So, for the voter, he is only involved on the Election Day. That is why voters tend to think that 2027 is far away because by February 2027, voters will have to go to the polls to vote. But, prior to that, a politician has to emerge as a candidate of his party and that period is less than a year from now. So, you can understand why it looks like there is a lot of frenzy in the system.
Apart from the frenzy, there seems to be a lot of media appearances and a lot of sentiments and emotions in the system. How do we separate normal emotions and sentiments from the critical national discourse expected from issues leading to 2027?