BY March 28, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect the person that will govern the country for the next four years. Although fifteen political parties are fielding candidates for the presidential election, the two parties to watch are the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC and their candidates. However, some factors are emerging that may influence the outcome of the presidential election in different regions and states of the country.

THE frenetic race to the aborted February 14 election, which has now been shifted to March 28, during which the choice of 109 senators will be made across the country had reached feverish pitch before the shift of date.

I WAS shocked to read the editorial of February 16, entitled “Nigeria’s Miserable Choices.” First, it was the Independent National Electoral Commission, not President Goodluck Jonathan, who decided to postpone the election, a power it exclusively has under our constitution. INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, said publicly “nobody has coerced us… to take this decision.”

IN the past few weeks, there has been a lot of peace accords along with the attendant media hype. The first of these was the Abuja accord where the leading political parties and their presidential candidates signed an agreement essentially against election violence.

THAT politics is the branch of social science that deals with the allocation of power to a few individuals, to use as they deem fit, on behalf of the majority of the people is no longer news.