Communique of a Roundtable Event on Manifestos and Issue-Based Political Campaigns for Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections

On Thursday, December 8, 2022, the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, hosted a roundtable discussion on the theme “Manifestos and Issue-Based Political Campaigns for Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections.” The Roundtable was a hybrid event with both online and onsite participants from various spheres including government agencies, political parties, civil society, and the media. The main objective of the Roundtable was to x-ray critical areas of concern in each sector of the Nigerian economy with a feasible proposal on benchmarks for issue-based political campaigns among political parties in Nigeria. Participants, deliberated on the challenges of high cost of governance, exchange rate management, the debt debacle, the energy crisis, food insecurity and the agricultural value chain. Other issues deliberated include social protection, education, health, unemployment, the restructuring issue, climate change and the infrastructure challenge.  Following lengthy discussions on manifestos and issue-based political campaigns for Nigeria’s general elections in 2023, the following observations and recommendations were made: