-By Austen AKHAGBEME:

After the initial surge and the baring of the campaign fangs on the electorates last November, the politicians campaigning for the next general election in Nigeria are gradually slowing down.

This probably owes partly to the CBN’s new Naira policy, especially the “facelift” or colour change given to the embattled national currency. It could also be a deliberate tactical move to conserve campaign funds for next February while watching the swing of the apex bank’s pendulum with the accompanying vicissitudes.

However, we can not be oblivious to the fact that we have so far been “entertained” and provoked by the quality of the campaign as regards real issues of the day on one hand and the usual but age-long showboating by aspirants who obviously are unaware of the enormity of our national dilemma on the other.

Who are the real campaigners, you may want to ask? These are those who understand the existential threat to our beloved nation by our self-inflicted wounds expressed in the profligacy of the past and the obduracy of the present drivers to embrace the real change that we truly need.

The orthodoxy of thought and the emotional carelessness with which the show boaters talk about Nigeria and her future vis-a-vis their choice of president speaks volumes of the trouble we have in our hands.

This variant of campaigners has chosen to forget the distant and the immediate past of our chequered history and our ordeal in the hands of these same characters or their progenitors.

So they feel so free to sell the same old rotten potatoes for a new price in a crispy note to the unsuspecting Nigerians; it’s a pity. They lie, pretend, package and repackage failure to look like success going somewhere to happen. What a country!

Everyone that loves the country must endeavour to join the camp of the true campaigners; those who are ready to vote for progress and development with aspirants of proven integrity and strength of character to take Nigeria to her rightful destination. Let the show boaters be put to shame with our collective resolve to have a new nation where peace and justice reign.

• Austin AKHAGBEME is a Cilumnist with Blank NEWS Online