2023: ‘Who Can Bring Food Prices Down?’ — Nigerians Speak On Coming Presidential Campaign

As the September 28 commencement date of political campaigns for the 2023 general election approaches, Nigerians have called on political actors and candidates to shun politics of bitterness and focus solely on issues they wish to address if elected into office.

The leading candidates in the presidential race include Bola Ahmed Tinubu, All Progressives Congress (APC); Atiku Abubakar, People’s Democratic Party (PDP); Peter Obi, Labour Party (LP); and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, New Nigeria People Party (NNPP).

THE WHISTLER spoke to Nigerians from all walks of life about their expectations from political parties and candidates as the campaign season opens officially.

Jude Ezenwo, an estate surveyor and valuer, said that politicians need to refrain from character assassination and campaign based on how they will address the myriad of challenges the country is facing if they are elected into office.

He said “My own take is that our politicians should grow, they should not attack ‘personalities’ but rather they should tackle the ‘issues’. We move beyond the politics of character assassination because 2023 is so important for us as a nation, everybody should talk about their personal competence and convince people to vote for them.”

Similarly, Shamsudeen Ayinde, a businessman, called on the four major presidential candidates to campaign based on their previous records in public office.

“The Matter here is all the 4 major candidates in this election have held executive power for 8 years, I can excuse Atiku because he was deputy, but the other 3 have no excuse to not campaign based on their performances as governor in their various states,” he said.

For Safiya Audu, a trader at the Relocation Market Kubwa, Abuja, the only message she hopes to hear from presidential candidates is how they intend to tackle Nigeria’s worsening inflation, particularly food prices.

According to her, “Things are very costly now, a bag of rice used to be 15,000 naira, now it is over 40,000 naira. So, any candidate that will convince me to vote for him must have solid plans to bring food prices down and make things cheap and affordable. Nigeria is becoming difficult to live in and we need things to change positively.

Enitan Adeyeye, on her part, decried the neglect of the education sector which has led to the prolonged ASUU strike.

“I am a student of the University of Jos, I have been at home since February, I am tired already. I feel my life is at a standstill because I am a final year student and my mates in private universities have already graduated and doing their youth service.

“So, that’s why any candidate with concrete plans for the education sector will have my vote. I have already registered to vote and I intend to vote for the most competent among the leading candidates,” she said.

According to the timetable and schedule for the 2023 general elections released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the commission will on the 20th of September, 2022 publish the final list of nominated candidates contesting the presidential polls in accordance with section 32 of the Electoral Act.

The campaign season will then kick start officially a week later on the 28th of September for the presidential and national assembly elections while the campaign for gubernatorial and state assembly elections will start on the 12th of October.