By Kingsley Fanwo

A political advocacy group, Issues, Not Insults has called on political players in the state to shun hate campaigns ahead of the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi State.

Abubakar Audu

Spokesman of the group, Mr. Idris Jimoh said politics must be redefined in Nigeria to encourage the participation of people with great intellectual capabilities to turn around the fortunes of the state.

“As a nation, we need to switch to campaigns of issues and ideas instead of using campaigns to attack and smear people’s integrity. We are trying to change the lines of electioneering in such a way that people with intellectual capacity are encouraged to participate in politics.

“We have concluded plans to test run our approach here in Kogi by changing political discourse to reflect what, when and how instead of who every time.

“The electorate must know that a politician who insults others has no idea of how he wants to perform in office. An intellectual politician will love to engage the electorate on his programs and plans as well as how and when he wants to achieve his plans”.

Mr Jimoh said the group is gearing up for a world class debate among candidates of the leading political parties in the state to give the voters first hand knowledge of the competence of the candidates.

He said modalities for the debate will soon be released, pledging to change campaign contents by working closely with political parties in the state.