- If you did not understand the video below, let me break it down for you.
- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu @officialABAT has told his campaign council that he will not accompany them everywhere during the 2027 campaign.
- He says governance requires his attention, that Nigeria has bills to pay, that “the American creditors cannot wait,” and that investors must be courted.
- All these things may sound reasonable.
- But democracy is built upon another obligation:
the person asking for power must face the people from whom that power comes.
- A presidential campaign is not merely dancing on podiums and distributing party flags.
- It is one of the few moments when the powerful must travel towards the powerless; when Abuja must come to the village; when the candidate must hear the anger, hunger, questions and aspirations of people whose votes he seeks.
- A campaign team can organise rallies.
- Governors can mobilise supporters.
- Data boys can defend policies.
- But nobody can completely outsource the moral responsibility of asking another human being for his mandate.
- Tinubu says governing Nigeria must take priority, and that is a legitimate argument.
- But Nigerians are equally entitled to ask:
how much personal engagement should reasonably be expected from someone seeking another four years of their trust?
- Creditors matter.
Investors matter.
Governance matters.
- But citizens matter too.
- And this principle should not depend on whether the candidate is Tinubu, Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar or anybody else.
- This same standard must apply to everyone.
- Democracy becomes dangerous when citizens begin lowering standards for the politician they already support.
- The ballot is not an inheritance.
- Power should have to knock on the door.
- And anyone asking millions of Nigerians for another mandate should expect Nigerians to ask, in return:
Will you come before us yourself and ask for it?
@TrendfusionNG
