IN a serious democracy, a candidate who refuses to present himself for a major debate like the presidential debate would lose the election. Neither his reasons, nor his name would be important in the public reaching the decision on this. He would suffer the consequences of ignoring the public, and his party would be entangled in the resulting public odium his decisions would generate.

ELECTIONS are the best opportunities for Nigerians to say the worst things about their opponents. Threats and counter threats appear are also making increasing appearances in the news. Are they the selling points of candidates in the elections? We heard similar threats in the governorship elections that passed peacefully in Ekiti and Osun States last year.

CORRUPTION has been a buzzword for years. It is a minor surprise that it has not assumed a major role in the campaigns. Political correctness demands some general noise about corruption. Politiciansare more interested in “one type of corruption”, not the other, the one that affects them. Why is corruption an issue? It exists; it has devastating consequences for operations in the public and private sector. Corruption distorts economic activities, diverts public investments into private holdings.

CHARLES Soludo, former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, has been accused of attention-seeking. Another accusation is that he mixed facts with fiction to the annoyance of today’s governments. He has been named a poor manager, whose skills resulted in huge bank liabilities – N5.67 trillion, according to government.

IF Nigeria is ours, we should protect it; we should place the interests of Nigeria above personal ambitions. We want to see such thinking in action during the elections. Change in our attitude is more important than who wins and loses the elections. The most important attributes of the elections should be the equanimity, grace, humility with which contestants accept the results. It is the responsibility of contestants to lead their supporters to change that would ensure there is no violence during and after the elections. It is an important change that would secure the lives of Nigerians quicker than the long speeches we hear.

THE United States of America is never short of arrogance in its relations with Nigeria. The threat of its Secretary of State, John Kerry that sponsors of election-related violence would be denied American visa, was not a joke, but some in the audience applauded. It is either the United States has elevated the importance of its visa to such heights that mention of its denial amounts to a death sentence, or it was another opportunity to declare its unwillingness to help Nigeria fight the violence that has been ravaging the country, especially the North East.

STUDENTS of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun, FUPRE, Effurun in Delta State, laid siege to the East-West Road this afternoon disrupting traffic for some hours over the increase of their school fees by the authorities.

THERE are no easy answers to how the coming elections would be free and fair. The experiments the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been conducting since the 2011 elections are continuing. Issues are assuming complications that should not be round major elections within weeks of their conduct.

THE coming elections hold vast handles for assessing fairness and readiness of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The most important issue appears to be the permanent voter’s card, PVC, which INEC has not delivered to prospective voters. More than 30m – almost 50 per cent of the registered voters – have not collected the cards.

AFTER the 2012 elections in the United States of America, our politicians bickered over the conduct of American politicians. They accused each other of not following the American tradition of accepting defeat and congratulating the winner.