*2023: Kwara Must Change urges political parties to base campaign on truth and empowerment*

_Says political campaigns should be a competition for quality ideas_

Ahead of the 2023 political campaign that is about to begin on 28th September 2022, a leading Pro-democracy group, Kwara Must Change has called on political parties in Nigeria to base their campaign on truth and genuine issues that could intellectually empower the people and build their capacity to be active and responsible citizens.

The group also said that, political campaigns should no longer be about antagonism, but about competition of quality ideas.

In a statement by the Convener of Kwara Must Change, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, the group stated that the era of turning campaigns into battle and pitching one group against the other on the basis of tribe, region or religion should be over.

According to Hamzat, deliberate falsehood, outright misrepresentation and unpatriotic demarketing of the country under the guise of campaign is no longer tolerable, adding that all candidate seeking to lead the country and its component units must be empowering the people through their campaigns.

Hamzat maintained that, Nigerians should be learning more about the country's opportunities and challenges during the campaigns, they should be building better understanding of specific issues such as digital economy, climate change, artificial intelligence, agricultural enterprising etc and not be bombarded with negative rhetorics that strips others of humanity.

While noting that nothing is wrong with criticism and pointing out deficiencies in other candidates, Hamzat insisted that, stripping other people of their human dignity is crossing of the redline and all such attitudes should be avoided ahead of the 2023 election.

Kwara Must Change concluded by wishing all political parties well in their respective campaigns, saying 2023 will be the turning point for Nigeria's greatness.

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