Stakeholders take on presidential candidates’ failure to present manifestos

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) greenlit 2027 presidential campaigns to kick off on August 19, 2026. However, 67 days later, none of the three major candidates and their parties have released detailed manifestos of their policy direction for the benefit of voters. PHILIP IBITOYE engages a cross-section of stakeholders on their views of this lapse.

Political parties no longer setting agenda, sponsoring candidates —Bukola Idowu

Bukola Idowu is the Executive Director of Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), a youth-focused nonpartisan organisation focused on citizen-led democratic development.

YOU must have noticed that the major presidential candidates have not released their manifestos and we are now 83 days until election day. This is a departure from the previous election when they all released detailed policy plans. Are you concerned about what this portends for democratic governance?

I think at the foundational level, nothing has changed. That is what they are communicating to us, because these are the same set of people that also contested in 2023. What they are just telling us, and like what has been happening, is more or less that they have carried the manifesto of 2023 to their new party, and that is what they are working with. Many of them have started campaigning, too. It may not be as big as it should be, but they have started campaigning. And if you look at it, they are not saying anything different from what they said in 2023. I think it is only Atiku that had a twist to his manifesto in 2023, where he said now he is going to return fuel subsidy. That is the only thing. But every other thing they have been saying, they have not said anything different. And that also tells you that there has not been much progress. If your manifesto of four years ago is still relevant now, then we don’t have much progress. Even President Tinubu and the APC have not, like you said, even released any new manifesto. It shows that they are campaigning on what they are doing now just to say, ‘Look, there is no new manifesto; we just want to continue.’ And that is what they keep saying…

What you are saying is that there is no forward-looking agenda?

Yes, there is no forward-looking agenda. They just want to continue: “Oh, we are consolidating on what we have done, and we will begin to see the dividends of some of the reforms we have taken.” You can imagine what it means: four years of reform, and then in the next four years, we are expected to see the dividends. We are concerned about two things. Number one, that they don’t have a manifesto. Now, you have to look at it on a deeper level. When I say deeper level, it is because, except President Tinubu, Peter Obi, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and Seyi Makinde, all of them have gone into a new political party that was not where they campaigned or the political party they ran on in 2023. So, that tells you that it is the candidates now that are making the political party, not the political party making the candidates. Because when you join a party, the party should even have a manifesto. So what is the party manifesto? What is the party’s programme for Nigeria? Nobody knows it for the NDC when Obi went there. Nobody knows that of the ADC; nobody knows that of the APM. The candidates have gone to the place and now begin to repeat what they said in 2023. It shows a lot about bad political party management. We are running a political party management system in Nigeria where the individual is stronger than the party. That is what we are running now.

Don’t forget that the Renewed Hope Agenda is an initiative of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and that is what the APC has adopted. The same APC adopted different things under Buhari. Now, they’ve adopted this. So, what is the manifesto of the APC that whoever the candidate is will fall in line and say, “Look, this is our party manifesto, and we are executing it”? That is how it has been done in the past and all over the world. Theoretically, that is how it is. Each party will have a programme; you will know that this is the party programme.

Today in Nigeria, we don’t have it, because party ownership is even based on individuals. It is individuals who are sponsoring political parties here. So that is the issue. You can imagine when Kwankwaso left the NNPP and came to the NDC, and Obi left Labour and came to the NDC, are they adopting the NDC manifesto? Who has seen the NDC manifesto? No. They start talking about what they talked about in the Labour Party and in the NNPP in the NDC. That is the irony of it.If you ask me, we are worried that they don’t have a new manifesto; the parties. The structure of the political party we have today is just a platform for people to contest, not a platform of ideology for development.

Absence of manifesto may lead to winner governing on autopilot —Olawale Afolabi

Olawale Afolabi is a political scientist based in Lagos.

WHAT functions do manifestos serve?

A manifesto matters because it is always a tool with which one can gauge the level of performance of the winner who is occupying the position of power. So, it is very important, also because it is a tool of accountability. You get those in power to be accountable for their actions based on the promises made via the manifesto. And that as well serves as a guide for policy direction. From the manifesto of a candidate, we strongly believe that the direction of the country can be understood on the basis of what the plans, programmes, and policies as documented in the manifesto would be.That is speaking on the basis of what should be. But then, it is Nigeria. Will it go in line with that? That is a far cry, especially when you look at the current situation of the country in line with what was promised going by the manifesto, and even the previous administration before this.

READ ALSO: Candidates’ manifestoes: How realistic?

What does failure to publish manifestos portend for governance?

The implication is the country might just be on autopilot. One, there would be no tool to hold the leader to a measure of accountability. There would be no reference point as to where the country is coming from and where it is headed. There would be no direction in terms of policy. There would be no direction in terms of aspiration and goals, because there is no plan, no documented plan of what the government itself wants to achieve. So, you would just have a directionless state. And the implication when you have a directionless state is that you don’t expect development or any sort of positive good when it comes to the society. Positivity will be so far away from the country because the country itself lacks direction, going by the fact that there’s no manifesto to help shape the direction of the country. So, it is as clear as that.

Manifestos offer voters chance to scrutinise candidates’ plans, make informed choices —Aromaye

Akindeji Aromaye is the Senior Media Associate at Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, a civil society organisation focused on promoting good governance and public accountability.

IN your view, why does a manifesto matter?

Working in the civic engagement and elections space, I have come to see that getting citizens to participate in elections is only one part of the work. They also need the information to make informed choices and hold elected officials accountable beyond election day.A manifesto matters because it gives voters a basis for interrogating what candidates are promising. It moves the conversation from what a candidate wants to achieve to how they intend to achieve it, what resources will be required and what citizens should expect in return for the mandate they give. This is particularly important in Nigeria today. Questions about the cost of living, food affordability, fuel prices, insecurity, jobs and access to basic services are not abstract policy debates; they shape people’s everyday decisions and quality of life. The choices a government makes in addressing these problems have real consequences for households and businesses.

Take fuel pricing, for instance. Candidates are proposing different approaches to reducing the cost of fuel, but voters need to understand more than the promised price at the pump. They need to know how that price will be achieved, how the policy will be funded and what its implications will be for government revenue and other public services. The same scrutiny should apply to promises on job creation, electricity and security. A manifesto provides a starting point for these conversations. It gives citizens, the media and civil society something against which to examine campaign claims and, after the election, assess whether commitments are being fulfilled. Without that reference point, public engagement risks being reduced to reacting to whatever candidates say at rallies or in interviews. For me, the value of a manifesto lies not in the document itself, but in the clarity it provides about a candidate’s priorities and the basis it establishes for public accountability.

What are the implications of candidates making off-hand campaign promises without clear and practical policy documents?

One of the challenges in electoral engagement is encouraging citizens to look beyond campaign rhetoric and interrogate the substance of what candidates are offering. When promises are not supported by clear policy proposals, citizens have less information with which to compare candidates and assess the implications of their choices. We are already seeing why this matters in the current campaign. Candidates are making promises about reducing fuel prices, improving electricity, creating jobs and addressing insecurity. Yet these are complex problems that cannot be resolved by declarations alone. A promise to make petrol cheaper, for example, raises questions about crude supply, refining costs, pricing arrangements and the potential burden on public finances. A promise to create jobs should explain which sectors will drive that growth, what conditions businesses need to expand and how the proposed jobs will be measured.

These details matter because Nigeria has experienced the consequences of major policy decisions, including the removal of petrol subsidies and foreign exchange reforms. Whatever position one takes on those decisions, their effects on household spending and the wider economy demonstrate why citizens need to understand not only what a candidate proposes, but also the likely costs, trade-offs and expected benefits. Campaign promises should be examined against the realities people are living with and the lessons of policies already implemented. There is also an accountability gap. If a candidate promises to improve security or reduce the cost of living without setting out specific commitments, timelines or indicators of success, it becomes difficult for citizens to determine whether the government is making progress once elected. Politicians should not be able to define success solely through speeches or announcements; there must be a basis for measuring results.

However, I would distinguish between the absence of a manifesto and the absence of a plan. A candidate may have policy ideas or an existing government agenda without having published a comprehensive manifesto. The concern is whether those ideas have been presented clearly enough for the public to examine and compare. Equally, publishing a lengthy manifesto does not automatically make its proposals credible. The commitments must be realistic, evidence-informed, financially sustainable and supported by a practical implementation framework. What concerns me as we approach the 2027 elections is the prospect of citizens being asked to make consequential decisions without comparable, sufficiently detailed and accessible policy documents from the major contenders. This limits the quality of public debate at a time when Nigerians need clear answers about how the next administration intends to address the country’s challenges.

Ultimately, elections should give citizens an opportunity to choose not just who governs, but also the policies and priorities that will shape the country. Those seeking public office should therefore be prepared to explain their plans in sufficient detail for Nigerians to scrutinise them before election day and hold them accountable afterwards. That is how electoral participation can translate into meaningful democratic accountability.