It is that cycle again in our political life. Men and women seek offices at different levels, from the local government to the presidency. It is a distracting fair. Especially to those who are currently holding public positions.

Even some who do not hold public offices also concentrate the minds of those in office. The evidence is everywhere today. One of the great examples is where state governments have asked their cabinet members who have ambitions to run for any office in the run-up to 2023 poll should hand in their letters of resignation. The letters are pouring in. In spite of that, they have not stopped distracting the men in office.

For instance, in Akwa Ibom State, the governor has picked a person he sees as his choice of successor. But rather than let the matter go into the political space, the disgruntled in and out of cabinet have been pouring invectives and trying to force the governor to issue statements. Governor Udom Emmanuel has kept the matter out of the public fray. Hence, the matter has not escalated.

In Ekiti State, the outgoing governor, Kayode Fayemi, has been known to roll his support for the APC nominee even before the primaries, and it played a role in diverting attention from governance in the state. It still does.

In the case of Osun State, Governor Gboyega Oyetola is seeking a second term, and in anticipation of the tempest of the primaries, a minister came to town to divert attention and the state walked a thin line between violence and peace.

Even at the federal level, the matter might get to a boil with ministers who want to run for president and are serving as cabinet members. While the state governors, in deference to the electoral law, have asked their staff to quit, the ministers insist on staying in office. The ministers, Rotimi Amaechi and Chris Ngige, have not shown any intention to quit the cabinet. There have been calls by members of the public pressuring the president, Muhammadu Buhari, to ask the men to resign. But there is a case in court awaiting a verdict on the matter based on the interpretation of the Electoral Act. Attorney General and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami who also is eyeing the Kebbi State governorship seat, had secured a temporary verdict that allows the office holders on the surface to work as both candidates and appointees simultaneously.

But the ministers are key appointees, one holding the government key on labour, especially with the maelstrom of university lecturers’ strikes; the other recently embroiled in a turf war with the vice president over responsibility for the Abuja-Kaduna rail attack from bandits.

Running for office is an intense activity. It involves meetings after meetings, barnstorming and late-hour consultations. It is a laborious affair and takes away man hours from governance.

Even those in office are looking out at those outside looking in. They play the game of positioning and exclusion, of mudslinging and whitewashing, and this goes on while more important matters suffer.

This is a country that hovers between poverty and extinction, and those who run it keep it so as though they enjoy the tension. Hospitals continue to serve as consulting clinics when they are even at their best, for many times there are no specialists to consult. This keeps patients’ lives precarious. Cost of living is rising, and partly because farmers work at their own risks. They cannot go to their farms because bandits have owned the highways.

Public funds that should go for development are being diverted to political work, paying for delegates and campaign offices, and supporters’ blocs called structures.

It is a cycle, an inevitable cycle, but the distraction is avoidable if our politicians have integrity.