John Oyegun
FROM THISDAY.
In the countdown to Osun State governorship election held last week, the All Progressive Congress, APC, (maybe its name should have been the All Propaganda Congress,) unleashed a tirade of attacks, blackmail, indefensible falsehood, mindless propaganda against virtually all state institutions that had any role to play in the election.
Only the undiscerning could not have seen this as a tactic deployed to whip up sympathy for itself and lay the ground work to castigate and denigrate the election, should the result of the poll not go its way.
The attacks were so strident, so frightening and so disingenuous, that no one who has followed the party’s history and tactics that will not realise that its tactics were working to an answer. All sorts of falsehoods were conjured by the party’s leadership and strategists and pushed out with such audacious effrontery that one was left in complete dismay by the brazen insensitivity of the action, unmindful of the reputational damage of its actions to our national institutions. The desperation and sheer destructive tactics of this party are now well on record and will only serve to alienate more people from it.
INEC, the Military, Police and all other security operatives that participated in ensuring the security of the process were subjected to all manner of attacks and ridicule in the media. The propaganda against them was so vicious that even Hitler’s propagandists would have been green with envy.
The attacks were so strident, so frightening and so disingenuous, that no one who has followed the party’s history and tactics that will not realise that its tactics were working to an answer. All sorts of falsehoods were conjured by the party’s leadership and strategists and pushed out with such audacious effrontery that one was left in complete dismay by the brazen insensitivity of the action, unmindful of the reputational damage of its actions to our national institutions. The desperation and sheer destructive tactics of this party are now well on record and will only serve to alienate more people from it.
INEC, the Military, Police and all other security operatives that participated in ensuring the security of the process were subjected to all manner of attacks and ridicule in the media. The propaganda against them was so vicious that even Hitler’s propagandists would have been green with envy.
The election has come and gone and by the final tally of results, APC won. Will this party have the modesty to apologise to Nigerians, INEC, and security agencies for all the falsehood dished out against them? Will APC have the honesty for once, to admit that its campaign was premised on propaganda rather than substance? Will it admit that most of the things it dished out were utter falsehood? No one expects them to do so anyway. I certainly don’t expect them to see anything wrong with the manner of politics and campaign going by the haughtiness of its cardinals. In fact I expect APC to raise its black power clenched fist in victory dance. And it is already doing that.
Watching them dancing in celebration the day after the election was striking. The faces of hypocrites were in celebratory feast. Reason? They won the results of the election. The election was “militarised” and yet they won. Is militarisation a reason for their victory as it was for APC’s loss in Ekiti? Unlike Ekiti, we did not hear that the election was rigged, APC won in a credible, free and fair election secured by security operatives that it did everything to undermine.
APC lost in Ekiti but refused to accept defeat. What kind of party is this? Elections are only credible when it favours the cardinals and merchants of imposition. The Judiciary is the saviour of democracy when it annuls another party’s victory and gives it to APC. Court rulings and judgments are only credible when it favours APC. Judiciary is praised to high heavens as the last hope of the common man when it favours APC, but when it dares to rule against APC’s interest, it is subjected to ridicule and denigrated in the media. Its rulings and judgment suddenly become black market rulings given by “pliant Judges”. What kind of party does that to state institutions?
INEC suffers the most in the hands of APC, the police; the military and everybody suddenly become PDP members when APC is losing. Creating unnecessary tension by portraying itself as a victim when in fact it is the aggressor. It is a shameful tactics that has sustained the party. Blackmail is its strategy and the end, justifies the means. It was through media blackmail that it got registered as party in the first place. It is not surprising that it has continued on this inglorious path.
Now that it has won in Osun, does it not undermine the very basis of its petition in Ekiti, which is militarization of the state before and during the election?
Before the Osun election, in its usual strategy of crying wolf, all manner of plots to rig were being uncovered. A poor man’s forgery of what it called ‘‘PDP Manual For Rigging in Osun’’ was even published as advertorials in newspapers. Commissioner of Police in Osun State was accused of bribing officers, INEC was serially accused of colluding to rig the election for PDP, the Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner was not spared, he was accused of being a PDP stooge.
APC lost in Ekiti but refused to accept defeat. What kind of party is this? Elections are only credible when it favours the cardinals and merchants of imposition. The Judiciary is the saviour of democracy when it annuls another party’s victory and gives it to APC. Court rulings and judgments are only credible when it favours APC. Judiciary is praised to high heavens as the last hope of the common man when it favours APC, but when it dares to rule against APC’s interest, it is subjected to ridicule and denigrated in the media. Its rulings and judgment suddenly become black market rulings given by “pliant Judges”. What kind of party does that to state institutions?
INEC suffers the most in the hands of APC, the police; the military and everybody suddenly become PDP members when APC is losing. Creating unnecessary tension by portraying itself as a victim when in fact it is the aggressor. It is a shameful tactics that has sustained the party. Blackmail is its strategy and the end, justifies the means. It was through media blackmail that it got registered as party in the first place. It is not surprising that it has continued on this inglorious path.
Now that it has won in Osun, does it not undermine the very basis of its petition in Ekiti, which is militarization of the state before and during the election?
Before the Osun election, in its usual strategy of crying wolf, all manner of plots to rig were being uncovered. A poor man’s forgery of what it called ‘‘PDP Manual For Rigging in Osun’’ was even published as advertorials in newspapers. Commissioner of Police in Osun State was accused of bribing officers, INEC was serially accused of colluding to rig the election for PDP, the Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner was not spared, he was accused of being a PDP stooge.
Only recently, in the countdown to the Ekiti election, the US in a statement entitled, ‘Countering the crisis of credibility’ by its Consul General, Jeff Hawkins, wondered why politicians keep making elections incredible in Nigeria.
The diplomat argued that, “The sponsorship of violence and intimidation, and the rhetorical threat thereof, are utterly unacceptable in a democratic society, and need to be expunged once and for all from the Nigerian polity and discourse. The US has been deeply troubled by some of the rhetoric that has been thrown around in recent weeks and months as these elections have drawn closer. It is perfectly acceptable, and even praiseworthy, to seek to defend your vote and that of your fellow citizens who share your support for a particular candidate.
The diplomat argued that, “The sponsorship of violence and intimidation, and the rhetorical threat thereof, are utterly unacceptable in a democratic society, and need to be expunged once and for all from the Nigerian polity and discourse. The US has been deeply troubled by some of the rhetoric that has been thrown around in recent weeks and months as these elections have drawn closer. It is perfectly acceptable, and even praiseworthy, to seek to defend your vote and that of your fellow citizens who share your support for a particular candidate.
“It is not, however, productive or reasonable to threaten violence, even when you perceive others have been guilty of misconduct. We were deeply troubled by the threat of “rig and roast” issued multiple times by a major political figure in recent weeks. Who benefits from that type of violent rhetoric, we wondered? And why would any ordinary Nigerian accept such provocative language, especially considering the history of post-election violence in Nigeria, and the truly horrific carnage that this country has been suffering at the hands of Boko Haram?
“If a candidate believes an election is threatened, then that candidate should be doing everything possible to see that the rules of the game are enforced properly – by having party agents in the numerous locations where they are permitted, for example, to bear witness to what happens – or doesn't happen. That is part of the painstaking work of participating in, and building, a democracy. Drawing on or threatening violence is an attempt to short-circuit that process for the benefit of a few, but to the detriment of many.”
The blackmail and propaganda were so intense that it created needless tension in the land. Even in victory, the party’s arrogant haughtiness is as tall as Mount Everest.
“If a candidate believes an election is threatened, then that candidate should be doing everything possible to see that the rules of the game are enforced properly – by having party agents in the numerous locations where they are permitted, for example, to bear witness to what happens – or doesn't happen. That is part of the painstaking work of participating in, and building, a democracy. Drawing on or threatening violence is an attempt to short-circuit that process for the benefit of a few, but to the detriment of many.”
The blackmail and propaganda were so intense that it created needless tension in the land. Even in victory, the party’s arrogant haughtiness is as tall as Mount Everest.
Strangely, APC thinks it won Osun because of the propaganda it unleashed in the airwaves. It didn’t. Rather it won because it had some time to recover after Ekiti exposed its clay feet. The emergency billions of naira rushed into the State from Lagos went a way in helping to clear arrears of unpaid salaries, pension, etc. The sudden good behaviour it tried to put up, the panicky reversal of anti-people policiesit embarked on also helped.
But the result doesn’t look too good for APC despite the fact it won. If PDP’s Omisore could secure 292,000 compared to Aregbesola’s 394,000 votes in APC’s supposed stronghold, then there is trouble in Paradise for APC. The result, more than anything, confirms that APC is more in the newspapers than on ground.
But the result doesn’t look too good for APC despite the fact it won. If PDP’s Omisore could secure 292,000 compared to Aregbesola’s 394,000 votes in APC’s supposed stronghold, then there is trouble in Paradise for APC. The result, more than anything, confirms that APC is more in the newspapers than on ground.
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