We are now in the fourth of the six weeks by which our general elections were delayed, and this is similar to the second half of extra time of a knock-out football match. Like such a game, it is a time where both teams dig deep to make the move that will deliver the winning strike and ultimately the goal.
Applying this to the present situation, the two leading presidential contestants and their parties would be expected to
play their jokers and use their master stroke to edge the other.
Both parties in this case, having gone through a fiercely contested regular period of the election before the postponement, matching each other skill for skill, strength for strength and tactic for tactic, have used the opportunity provided by the extension to review the success rate of their activities and re-strategise towards correcting discovered flaws.
The leading parties had adopted different strategies at the beginning of the extra time. While the PDP hit the ground running with a fresh burst of energy showcasing its achievements at the helms of affairs coupled with the successes of the military on the battle front at about the same time, the APC maintained a rather quiet outlook that saw it taking a below the surface look at the journey thus far and prepare for the final onslaught as the election approaches.
The PDP reinvigorated its campaigns by holding stakeholder meetings with interest groups across the regions and unleashing verbal vituperations against some key members of the opposition and the opposition itself. For the PDP, this was necessary to correct the impression from the wrong notion and campaign of falsehood the opposition was preaching.
The opposition however concentrated efforts in revealing alleged proposed plots the ruling party had lined up to tilt the elections in its favour.
They also used the opportunity the extension gave them to shore up its human and capital resources to match the mischief machinery of the ruling party which it claimed was monstrously huge ahead of the final onslaught.
With no hint of a further postponement as had been widely speculated and circulated in rumour mills, the last three weeks of the extension period will be one full of activities on both sides of the divide.
The PDP is expected to draw strength from the new crop of opinion leaders it won over through the many rounds of meetings the President had with various interest groups across the country and the continued successes of the military in its battle against the insurgents in the North East to propel its campaign machinery to standards worthy of a great party like it.
The APC, though not showing any hint of what it has in stock, is expected to keep up the momentum with which it entered into the presidential campaign and deploy its ever increasing troop of followers in winning over the “fencists” (those yet to decide which side of the political divide to pitch their tent) in the country’s political
landscape.
The public expects a display of sportsmanlike character and maturity from both parties by reducing hate and inciting comments from its contestants and supporters alike because this is the time when the campaigns attain a fever pitch and exchanges should be properly monitored to avoid degenerating into violence before, during and after the elections.
With both parties having confirmed their levels of physical fitness and alertness; the PDP in a jogging exercise and the APC in a walk/march, the last battle in the political war between both parties before the nation heads to the polls promises to be one that would deliver the right kind of electioneering campaigns that would lead to a free and fair election.
At least if not for anything, it is what the Nigerian masses desire.
