Keynote Address
Delivered at the 9th Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP)
Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja — 9th October 2025
Protocols
President and Executive Members of GOCOP, distinguished guests, fellow speakers, ladies and gentlemen — good morning.
I am honoured to be here today as your keynote speaker. Let me begin by commending the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers for consistently creating platforms where we can have honest conversations about the future of our democracy. The theme of this year’s conference — Reconciling Campaign Promises with Governance Realities: Challenges and Prospects — could not be more timely.
Democracy is built on promises. During campaigns, politicians aspiring to various leadership positions speak of jobs, better schools, security, electricity, and prosperity. These promises inspire hope and mobilise citizens.
It is after elections that the real test begins — translating those promises into actual governance.
It is at this point that the gap emerges. Citizens who were full of hope during campaigns are often confronted with realities that seem far removed from what was promised. This tension, between hope and disillusionment, has been one of the defining features of politics in Nigeria and in many African countries.
Having served as Speaker of the House of Representatives and later as Governor of Katsina State, I have seen both sides of the coin. In the legislature, I saw how citizens’ aspirations are transformed into policies, laws, and oversight functions. In the executive, I experienced the complexities of implementation — limited resources, competing demands, and unexpected crises.
From these experiences I came to the conclusion that while campaign promises are necessary to inspire hope, governance requires tough choices, careful prioritisation, and sometimes painful trade-offs. It is these trade-offs that are sometimes, or even most often, regarded as unfulfilled promises.
In addition, there are several reasons why campaign promises often fail to translate into outcomes. Many manifestos are aspirational documents, not grounded in the reality of available resources or institutional capacity.
Fiscal constraints are also a big factor. Campaign promises hinge on the resources available to any country. In many African nations — and more specifically in our case — budgets are still heavily dependent on a single commodity: oil. Yet, as we all know, the price of oil is beyond our control. It is volatile, shaped by global market forces, geopolitical tensions, and other complex and unpredictable factors.
We saw the stark reality of this in 2016. The national budget was benchmarked at around $38 per barrel, but the international price of oil plunged below $25 which is below the cost of production. That sudden dip created revenue shortfalls, forcing difficult trade-offs. To the average citizen, these trade-offs could easily be misconstrued as broken promises — when in fact, they were simply the unavoidable outcome of a volatile global economy.
Beyond resource volatility, there are unforeseen emergencies that force governments to reorder their priorities. Take 2019, when COVID-19 struck. The world was brought to a standstill as nations fought desperately to save lives. Plans and promises across all sectors were suspended or slowed, because survival became the first priority. When such crises consume time, energy, and resources, campaign promises inevitably suffer.
Emergencies are not limited to global pandemics. Here in Nigeria, insecurity remains a persistent challenge. It undermines production, disrupts livelihoods, and reduces national revenues. At the same time, it compels government to divert enormous resources toward security operations. Insecurity, like climate change and natural disasters, are rarely predictable. But when they arrive at our doorstep, they cannot be ignored. They reshape priorities, often at great cost to original campaign commitments.
Another major issue is weak institutions. Even when funds are available, corruption, bureaucracy, and inefficiency can derail delivery. Add to this the pressures of short electoral cycles, where leaders are pushed to show quick results, often at the expense of long-term reforms, and the gap widens further.
Let me illustrate with a familiar example. In recent years, Nigeria embarked on the bold step of removing the fuel subsidy. The policy was designed to free up resources for critical development projects and to place our economy on a more sustainable path. In principle, this reform was necessary and forward-looking. However, like many reforms of this nature across the world, it also came with immediate adjustments — transport costs rose, food prices increased, and citizens felt the unexpected accompanying pain.
In the build-up to the 2023 elections, virtually all the major presidential candidates pledged to remove the subsidy and to realign the exchange rate of the Naira as part of the necessary steps to restore our economy. These were difficult but inevitable measures. The challenge, however, was that their consequences were not fully interrogated in the public space. Citizens were not adequately prepared for the temporary hardship such reforms would bring. It is only now, with implementation, that the pains are being fully felt. Yet the truth is that whichever candidate had emerged victorious, these measures would have been unavoidable.
Unfortunately, for many citizens, the short-term discomforts are viewed as broken promises.
Across the continent, we see similar patterns. In South Africa, for instance, there were promises of rapid job creation and economic transformation after the end of apartheid. Some progress has been made, but unemployment and inequality remain stubborn challenges. Citizens continue to feel that the speed of delivery has not matched the scale of promises. The lesson in this case is clear: when promises are ambitious but delivery is slow, citizens’ faith in democracy begins to weaken.
Even advanced democracies face this challenge. Let me recall one famous example. In 1988, George W. Bush Senior, then a candidate for President of the United States, made a powerful pledge at the Republican National Convention. He said, and I quote: “Read my lips: no new taxes.” That promise became the centrepiece of his campaign. But once in office, faced with mounting deficits, he had no choice but to introduce new taxes. The backlash was severe, and it contributed significantly to his defeat in the next election.
The lesson here is that even in countries with stronger institutions, promises can be jettisoned when confronted with economic realities. The difference, however, is that in mature democracies, institutions are more resilient, the public service is more professional, and citizens have clearer mechanisms to hold leaders accountable.
So how do we bridge this gap between what is promised and what is delivered?
First, political actors must campaign with responsibility. The media must interrogate it-self and be non-partisan. Campaign promises should be realistic, costed, and achievable within the available resources. Unrealistic pledges made merely to capture the mood of the electorate should be challenged and exposed. Only then can we begin to elevate our political culture and make sure that the process justifies the end.
Second, governance must be anchored on strong institutions. With capable institutions, policies can be implemented more consistently and transparently.
Third, there must be honest communication with citizens. Leaders should explain the trade-offs — why certain promises may take longer, why resources must be reallocated, and how progress will be measured.
Fourth, citizens themselves, including civil society and the media, must understand realities and properly communicate those realities in addition to holding leaders accountable. They should track promises, and demand transparency instead of creating sensational headlines to attract followers, especially now that the number of followers translates into monetary gain.
This is where journalism at its best, and more specifically GOCOP in this digital age, becomes indispensable. You and your profession are the bridges between the leaders and the people. You shape narratives, hold leaders accountable, and track progress.
Your platforms can create “promise trackers” that record what was pledged and what has been delivered. You can explain complex policy challenges to citizens in plain language. And you can amplify examples of good governance, showing that it is possible to keep promises when institutions are strong and leaders are transparent.
Conclusion
Reconciling campaign promises with governance realities is not just about avoiding embarrassment for politicians. It is about protecting the integrity of democracy itself.
If citizens repeatedly see promises made and broken, they lose faith in the system. But if they see even modest progress explained honestly and delivered consistently, they will continue to believe in the promise of democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us therefore commit — as leaders, as citizens, and as media practitioners — to narrowing this gap. Let our promises be realistic, our expectations be modest, our governance transparent, and our accountability strong.
In doing so, we can transform hope into progress, and democracy into a vehicle of real change.
Thank you, and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
