As Nigeria approaches the general election year, political activities are beginning to intensify with alignments and realignments by political actors who are once again going to present enticing manifestos and deliver fantastic speeches loaded with promises of good governance, in an attempt to woo the electorates for votes.

With the help of Artificial intelligence (AI) and content creators, some of these political actors will generate enticing electronic posters, videos, and other modes of communication to sell their candidacy to vulnerable Nigerians who are desperate for a change that has kept eluding them for decades.

As an observer, I have come to the understanding that the most vulnerable in every election cycle is not the political actors on the stage, it is rather the electorates, who are often easily swayed with tales by moonlight narratives and are influenced by sentiments often rooted in ethnic and religious affiliations, dwarfing their objective judgment and replacing such with subjective choices when electing their representatives in government.

The electorates, who also play the role of spectators in a political contest, can be likened to a church congregation that always echo "Amen" to every prayer or pronouncements coming from a minister in the pulpit. But as always, echoing "Amen" alone does not translate to miracles. Likewise, taking politicians by their words alone will not bring about the anticipated change craved for by the electorates.

If political actors were true to their words, the Nigeria of our dream would have been achieved by now. But here we are still grappling with erratic power supply, hyper inflation in the economy leading to hardships and poverty, insecurity leading to deaths of innocent citizens and loss of properties, and the collapse and poor state of transport, health, and other vital infrastructures. After all the promises made over the years to Nigerians by political actors, the country is yet to make real aggressive progress, but has instead continue to witness millipede-like developments dwarfed in corruption.

Already, Nigerians have begun to hear more promises being made once again. As the saying goes, empty barrels make the loudest noise. And in a country where the abnormal becomes normal, it seems for some of the electorates, this noise is often mistaken for sound because of their low level of intelligence or thinking faculty. For these electorates, just tell them what they want to hear and they will gladly donate their votes. Sadly, that is what has been happening for decades!

Majority of the Nigerian electorates by their actions have made political actors to be more emboldened in lie-telling because the actors on the political stage believe they will not be held accountable as long as they lean on the shoulders of a political godfather, influence the electorates financially with vote buying, or leveraging on ethnic, religion, or even political affiliations to evoke sentiments in their favour.

As always, the power is in the people. There is no way Nigeria will or can achieve greatness if the electorates are not willing to do what is right. After many years of electoral activities, that the electorates need to be enlightened or sensitized on how to identify genuine from fake political actors is to say the least, "disappointing".

It is once again another political season where more lies will be packaged or dressed up by political fraudsters as the best offer the electorates should not miss. But I urge the electorates to not be swayed by the outward appearance of the offers of political actors, but they should carefully examine the offers from political actors by comparing their claimed achievements with the realities on ground.

The electorates cannot continue to line up to cast their votes in every four-year cycle, and when done, switch to the mood of lamentations and blame trading. To make Nigeria great does not lie only on political representatives, but more on the people, a responsibility they should exercise by diligently scrutinizing political actors in a season like this. The Nigerian electorates should therefore borrow leaf from the Bereans (residents of the ancient Macedonian city of Berea) who are best remembered for carefully examining the Old Testament daily to verify whether the Apostle Paul's teachings about Jesus Christ were true, in order to avoid falling prey to false teachings. The same cannot be overlooked in this political season.

Abai Francis, the Brand Director of PENGlobal, writes from Warri, Delta State.

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