More than 40 candidates have been cleared to contest the February 16 presidential election. Most of these contestants and their parties only exist on paper. They are not on the ground anywhere in the country probably because Nigeria politics is still party driven and if your party is not strong enough with structures at the grass root level, you a basically on your own. To build a nationwide party structure is a discussion for another day. However, I would expect anybody who is familiar with politics in Nigeria to know it is not an easy task.

Over the past few weeks and days, major political parties have been organizing rallies across the country. PDP started but it looks like they don't have what it takes to sustain the momentum across the country. PDP campaign has so far been poorly organised and the rallies have therefore not been consistently progressing as one would expect from a party that seeks to sack a sitting president. We can't see any force or movement capable of doing the job. Also, Atiku seems to be the only one campaigning and organizing rallies for himself. We have not even seen governors of PDP organizing rallies on behalf of their presidential candidate - it is everybody for himself in PDP. The only Atiku campaigners we have seen are the social media warriors who are mostly the traditional haters of Buhari and the so-called elite who are not favoured by the anti-corruption stance of Buhari.

Omoyele Sowore seems to be a very mobile contestant moving from one city to another. He even started his campaign before INEC lifted the ban on political campaigns. Again, he doesn't have the critical mass to sack a sitting president. No structure in place to pull the crowd capable of shaking the political landscape.

I am not sure other contestants are campaigning at all other than attending talk-shops and granting interviews on-air and social media. More than 70% of voters don't even know them - the likes of Moghalu, Fola, Ezekuesili, etc.

The sitting president, Muhamadu Buhari, seems to be the only one with cross-country appeal. His party has a formidable structure everywhere in the country and we can see this as his campaign train moves from one state to another. The crowd everywhere he goes is intimidating and consistently, the campaign is progressing.

That brings me to the topic of this piece. There has been so much talk about the presidential debate and the contestants who are not visible on the ground have been preparing and hoping that with the debate, they would get the votes required to be president of Nigeria. Some of them think their eloquence is what is required to snatch the votes from Buhari and send him back to Duara.

Unfortunately, Nigeria is not USA or any western country where oratory wins elections. The question is, how many Nigerians/voters watch such debates? Maybe 10% of voters. How many voters base their decision on what the candidates say at a debate? Maybe 2%.

Why then would anybody think he can get any mileage from a presidential debate?

I'm watching the talk shop now... and I pity the guys. They're sweating and speaking grammar for nothing. Nigerians don't trust the Nigerian elite and no amount of grammar will make masses follow them.

My advice, the elites should first demonstrate integrity and love for Nigeria and Nigerians.