By Michael Olaogun
As Nigeria inches closer to the 2027 general elections, the political atmosphere is already beginning to acquire the familiar smell of desperation, intrigue and political opportunism. Although the election is still ahead, the battle for power has effectively begun, with politicians positioning themselves, building alliances, testing public sentiment and searching for every possible advantage. In Nigeria, elections are rarely fought solely on the strength of ideas, competence or records in office. Too often, they become contests of money, manipulation, propaganda, ethnic calculations, religious sentiments and character assassination. The 2027 elections therefore present another opportunity to ask an uncomfortable question: when did politics become so dirty that winning has become more important than the country itself?
The dirtiness of Nigerian politics is perhaps most visible in the way political opponents are treated. Instead of interrogating policies and offering superior alternatives, politicians and their supporters frequently resort to insults, blackmail, misinformation and the deliberate weaponisation of personal weaknesses. Social media has made this problem even worse. A rumour can become “news” within minutes, while carefully researched facts struggle to attract attention. Political actors increasingly understand that outrage generates engagement, and engagement can translate into political influence. Consequently, the electorate is often confronted with an endless stream of fabricated stories, misleading videos, manipulated statistics and half-truths designed not to inform citizens but to emotionally manipulate them.
Yet, the greatest fuel for political dirtiness remains the extraordinary influence of money in Nigerian elections. Political contests have become extraordinarily expensive, creating an environment in which political participation is often easier for the wealthy and those backed by powerful interests. Money is deployed to mobilise supporters, influence narratives, secure political structures and, at its worst, manipulate voters. This creates a vicious cycle: politicians spend enormous resources to obtain power and may subsequently feel compelled to recover their political investment through access to public resources. When politics becomes an investment rather than public service, governance inevitably suffers. The 2027 elections should therefore force Nigerians to confront the uncomfortable relationship between electoral expenditure, political patronage and corruption.
Another troubling dimension is the continued exploitation of ethnicity and religion as instruments of political mobilisation. Nigeria’s diversity should ordinarily be a source of strength, but politicians often turn identity into a weapon whenever it serves their electoral interests. Candidates are presented as representatives of particular regions, ethnic groups or religious constituencies rather than as leaders with a national responsibility. Such politics deepens suspicion, reinforces stereotypes and makes citizens defend incompetence simply because the individual involved is perceived as “one of us.” The danger is profound: once identity becomes more important than competence, accountability becomes difficult. A politician can fail spectacularly and still receive unquestioning support because of the identity he or she represents.
The 2027 election cycle must also challenge Nigerian voters themselves. Politicians do not operate in a vacuum; they respond to the incentives created by the electorate and the political environment. If voters demand money before listening to manifestos, politicians will continue to monetise elections. If citizens reward inflammatory rhetoric, politicians will continue to manufacture division. If electoral victory is celebrated regardless of the methods employed, political actors will have little incentive to play by the rules. Nigerians must therefore move from being passive consumers of political propaganda to active evaluators of candidates. The relevant questions should be simple but demanding: What has this candidate achieved? What does he or she intend to do differently? How credible is the plan? Who will implement it? And what evidence exists that the candidate can deliver?
Political parties also have a responsibility to clean up the electoral marketplace. Parties should be platforms for competing visions of national development, not merely vehicles for securing political power. Their primaries should reward competence, integrity and public credibility rather than financial muscle and godfatherism. Candidates should be subjected to meaningful scrutiny, while campaign communication should focus more on policy choices than personal attacks. Civil society organisations, journalists, religious and traditional institutions, professional associations and the technology community equally have important roles to play in demanding accountability and countering disinformation. The media, in particular, must resist becoming an instrument for political propaganda and instead provide citizens with rigorous fact-checking, issue-based interviews and comparative assessments of competing political programmes.
Ultimately, the 2027 elections will reveal much about the political maturity of Nigeria and its citizens. Elections should not be wars in which victory justifies every weapon; they should be democratic competitions over competing ideas about how to build a better country. Nigeria desperately needs politics that is less transactional, less divisive and less obsessed with personalities, and more concerned with jobs, security, education, healthcare, infrastructure, economic opportunity and accountable governance. The responsibility for achieving this does not belong to politicians alone. The electorate must demand better, political parties must offer better, and the media must scrutinise better. If Nigerians continue to reward the dirtiest political tactics, politicians will continue to perfect them. But if the country chooses to reward competence, character, evidence and ideas, the 2027 elections could become more than another contest for power they could become a turning point in the quality of Nigeria’s democracy.
Michael Olaogun wrote from Abuja.