Though it’s the third time in nearly two decades when the two leading contenders in the race would be from the same ethnic group (the first being in 1999 when Obasanjo and Olu Falae clashed, and in 2007 when Buhari and late Umaru Yar’Adua faced each other), this is the first time when ethnic politics would recede as the leading candidates go toe-to-toe on the strength of their grit.

The general election in 51 days will be different from previous ones in nearly two decades in many ways. Money is one way. At this time in a “normal” election cycle, politicians would be in a rat race to outspend one another.

After four years of largely empty promises, they suddenly discover that they need to return to voters who wait in ambush on empty tanks, knowing that it would be another four years before this cycle repeats itself.

It’s a bizarre ritual of mutual extortion.

At a point, it didn’t look like it would be different this time. For example, the hefty cost of nomination forms by the two leading parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); the dollar bazaar at the PDP convention in Port Harcourt; and the estimated N26 billion shelled out by PDP and APC for the governorship election in Osun State, suggested that the stage was set, once again, for a tidal wave of campaign spending.

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