Tomorrow, we Nigerians will troop out in our millions to exercise our civic rights. We will speak through the ballot boxes to pick the next president for the country. It will be the fifth exercise since the nation returned to democratic governance in 1999 after a long spell of military rule.
Although there are no fewer than a dozen presidential hopefuls jostling for the highest office in the land, the contest is going to be a two-horse race between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the resurgent opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
The opposition party, which came into existence about a year ago, is an amalgam of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
It is the formidability of this merger that now poses a serious threat not only to the party that boasts of being the biggest political party in Africa but also its vow to remain in power for 60 years, beginning from 1999. Consequently, the two dominant parties are battling on an even keel.
And that is what will make tomorrow’s exercise a keenly contested one. The National Assembly contests holding simultaneously with the presidential poll will not be any different. It is this seeming balance of strength that was responsible for the transmuting of the nation’s campaign space