2027 presidency: ACF, PANDEF, MBF, demand scrutiny of candidates’ history
•If you want to lead Nigeria, your past must be clear — ACF
•It’s right, proper to bare your life journey — PANDEF
•Contestants must present scorecards, not promises — MBF •Background checks raise moral issues, but law remains supreme — Afenifere
By Dapo Akinrefon, Samuel Oyadongha, Peter Duru and Juliet Umeh
LAGOS — Ahead of the 2027 general elections, prominent socio-political organisations, yesterday, threw their weight behind calls for presidential candidates and other politicians seeking elective offices to open up their pasts for public scrutiny, saying Nigerians had a right to know the antecedents, educational background, integrity and track records of those seeking their votes.
The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, which fired the salvo, said politicians aspiring to lead Nigeria must be prepared to account for their past, stressing that the issue of candidates’ qualifications should go beyond the presentation of certificates to encompass the credibility, consistency and transparency of their personal histories.
The position, however, has triggered a wider debate on the balance between public scrutiny of candidates’ backgrounds, morality, legal qualification and the ultimate responsibility of voters to determine who should govern the country.
Backing the ACF, the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, and Middle Belt Forum, MBF, said Nigerians must examine the records of aspirants before entrusting them with political power.
But the Afenifere General Secretary, Chief Ademola Folarin, introduced a caveat, arguing that while interrogating candidates’ backgrounds was desirable, moral judgments could be subjective and must ultimately give way to the legal standards prescribed by the constitution and other statutes.
‘If you want to lead Nigeria, your past must be clear’ – ACF
Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Prof. Tukur Baba, stated the forum’s position while speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme, saying candidates seeking the highest political office in the land should expect questions about their past.
“If you are presenting yourself for election to the highest office in Nigeria, holding lives together, being the Commander-in-Chief, it is legitimate to ask questions,” Baba said.
He argued that Nigerians were entitled to know the history of those seeking their votes, insisting that leadership demanded transparency and accountability.
“The certificate is not as important as the story itself. It has to be straight. It has to be consistent. If it is not, there is a problem,” he said.
Although Baba acknowledged that the 1999 Constitution did not specifically require presidential candidates to produce documentary evidence of every stage of their education, he said the matter should not be dismissed merely on that ground.
“The law is clear, but I want to move away from focusing just on the qualification. You see here, we practise a brand of politics that is different from all those countries you listed,” he said.
Drawing a comparison with China, Baba said aspiring leaders there undergo years of scrutiny before attaining the highest positions.
“In China, you cannot just come from nowhere. You start from the very word and you climb. They have a very leadership selection process that you go through many years before you get to that point.
“By the time you get to the point of leadership, everything is known about you. Everything is scrutinised,” he said.
Baba lamented what he described as Nigeria’s weak leadership selection process, attributing it to compromised standards.
“We are simply flexible in our demands for accountability. There are no standards, and there are no standards because we do not demand standards,” he said. ‘What matters is impact of governance’
However, the ACF spokesman said the average Nigerian was ultimately more interested in the effect of governance on everyday life than in certificates alone.
“What matters to them is the effect of good governance,” he said, listing healthcare, education, housing, transportation and household welfare among issues that matter to citizens.
He asked: “At the end of the day, what goes into my pocket? How is my family protected? Would my wife go to the hospital and expect service? Would my children receive quality education?”
Baba therefore urged political actors to embrace transparency, saying Nigerians deserved to know “who it is that they are voting for” in 2027.
It’s right to bare your life journey — PANDEF
Aligning itself with the ACF, PANDEF National Chairman, Ambassador Godknows Igali, said the demand for transparency was neither outrageous nor targeted at any individual or region.
Reacting to the ACF’s declaration that “If you want to lead Nigeria, your past must be clear,” Igali said: “Well, absolutely. When a person presents himself for public service, it is right, proper, and fitting for him to make available to those he wants to serve, as much as possible, the journey of his life: what he has been and what he is today.”
The former diplomat likened political leadership to a job application, saying candidates should be able to present their records to the people they seek to serve.
“I don’t think they direct it to any particular individual; rather, they have made it a global condition that you should tell us who you are, where you’ve been, and what you’ve done,” he said.
“Look, all over the world, any job you apply for will ask for your CV. The purpose of the CV is to know who you are and what you have done. If that were not the case, any one of us could go anywhere and do any job.”
Igali said a candidate’s history was essential to assessing both strengths and weaknesses.
“People want to know what strengths you are bringing on board to the new office you seek, as well as what weaknesses can be discerned from knowing what you’ve been through and how you navigated it,” he explained.
Rejecting the argument that only a candidate’s present status mattered, he said: “Some people may argue that we don’t care what the man has been before; what is important is where he is today. I think that view is incomplete. It is not fair to Nigerians.”
Igali illustrated the point by noting that even applicants for the most basic jobs were asked about their previous experience and personal history.
He said the same requirement should apply to aspirants at every level of government.
Candidates must present scorecards – MBF
The National President of the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, Dr Bitrus Pogu, also endorsed the ACF position, describing it as an appropriate starting point for determining the suitability of those seeking to govern Nigeria.
Pogu said aspirants should be assessed on their records and achievements rather than promises made during election campaigns.
“I think it is a very good starting point because one needs to have his scorecard to be endorsed by Nigerians. It is something which is proper anyway,” he said.
He insisted that aspirants must be able to demonstrate what they had achieved before seeking higher office.
“One has to sell himself by his track record. You do not just come and start building from no foundation at all. It does not happen,” Pogu said.
According to him, every presidential candidate should be ready to undergo scrutiny by Nigerians so voters could determine whether the individual possessed the capacity and integrity to lead.
“Everybody needs to subject himself to proper scrutiny by Nigerians. One should be able to say yes, he has a clean track record that Nigerians can say, yes, if this is brought forward, it can impact positively on the Nigerian state and Nigeria would be better off with him,” he said.
Pogu said scrutinising candidates’ antecedents would enable voters to make informed choices and reduce the tendency to elect leaders without adequate knowledge of their records.
He also commended the ACF for what he described as a shift towards issues of national interest.
Background checks raise moral issues, but law remains supreme — Afenifere
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, said the move will determine their suitability for public office.
Afenifere’s General Secretary, Chief Ademola Folarin, said: “Interrogating the background of electoral candidates, as part of the process to determine their suitability for public office, is desirable and useful, and this usually, raises important moral issues. But morality, oftentimes, sits on the bed of subjectivity and conflicting interests. And it is trumped by the legal exactitudes of statutes”.
“Ultimately therefore, morality sits at the crossroad of legality and conjecture, where the latter is overwhelmed by the former. Whereas, the voters’ opinion will vary on moral issues, due to perception or because of conflicting interests, legality is confined to a process strictly determined by law, and an outcome that’s irresistibly binding. A focus on morality, which background interrogation entails, is ultimately futile. Baba appears to concede that point with his final summation, which is that, the true test of a candidate’s suitability, is whether, he’s legally qualified, competent, and able to satisfy the needs and aspirations of the people. And while there’s no binding forum to settle moral disputes, the constitution provides a binding process to settle legal disputes.”
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