ELECTIONS have been confirmed for February 2015, less than two months away since the first series would hold on February 14. We expected politicians would have deemed it important to start engaging the people in discussions about their future, about the competence they are providing as leaders and their expectations from those they lead.

After the mixed experience of 15 years of civil rule, the importance of the 2015 elections rests on opportunities they provide for people to reject politicians who have failed to improve the country.

Disappointments are numerous. Politicians have prospered, the people have been pulverised by policies that resulted in more poverty, more illnesses, less education and a dying belief that politicians have any interest in the welfare of ordinary Nigerians.

Politicians by committing resources to their well-being and intrigues to retain power have confirmed that the Nigeria of their dreams is one where they dispense privileges and pillage resources without a tinge of conscience about the implications of their actions for the common good.

Do they realise they hold power for the people and should use it for the common good? How would they know what the people expect when they talk only to themselves? Some groups want candidates in the 2015 elections to commit to a social contract. It would be a contract between candidates and voters. Since the needs of electorates vary in their constituencies, the social contract should reflect the needs of constituencies the politicians want to represent.

Why are aspirants not committing themselves to campaigns on free, fair, violence-free elections and good governance when elected? Is this an indication that they are planning differently from the general expectation of free and fair elections? How would the public be able to hold politicians accountable after the elections? Stakes are lower each year. Politicians know the poverty they have created make the people vulnerable to the pittance they offer. They want their money to speak for them. More discussions about performances of politicians would expose their failures.

Elections are too important to politicians, but not in the way voters think. Politicians see elections as vehicles for retaining power and ultimately the access to national resources. With just months to the elections, candidates should be made to speak in more specific terms about their intentions when elected.

The common practice is to speak in general terms. Those who promise electricity make no efforts to understand the issue. Such candidates see their manifestoes as campaign speeches without any inclinations to fulfil them once they get into office.

Pressure groups should focus on extracting performance agenda from all candidates in the elections, and finding ways of holding them accountable, if they win.