Tag: APC

All political parties indulge in one form of propaganda or the other. As the campaign for the 2015 polls begins, the use of propaganda will intensify. The All Progressives Congress (APC) will try to demonise the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the PDP will respond vigorously. Already, using various political and non-governmental organisation (NGO) vehicles, the PDP has taken on the APC’s leading presidential aspirants, and made the party look like a congregation of loathsome politicians. The APC’s choice of targets is a bit limited. It trains its guns on just one PDP aspirant/candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, who seems to grow in popularity as his leadership foibles multiply. Worse for the APC, it is unable to attack Dr Jonathan as heartily as it would like on account of the fact that he is president, and some decorum must be observed. Expectedly, however, with the elections a mere four months away, and as the parties get desperate, the APC will open a fusillade of verbal and political fire against the president, whether he constitutes himself into a moving target or stands immovably and implacably as a buffalo.

But often propaganda morphs imperceptibly into fascism, especially in the hands of organisations and individuals who have found a way of disgorging it of its ethical core. And here Ekiti is the archetype, showing the way Nigeria is heading. It is easy to lose the import of what is happening in Ekiti in the partisan fog of politics. It is easy to dismiss criticisms of Governor Ayo Fayose’s methods and politics as tantamount to sympathising with the APC. However, the lurch to fascism is real and frightening, not only in Ekiti but nationally, notwithstanding the governor’s protestations to the contrary or his sanctimonious embrace of spiritual change and rebirth. Sadly, what is true of Ekiti is also true of the Goodluck Jonathan government, where propaganda is indistinguishable from fascism, and where tyranny is used interchangeably with liberalism.

Having tasted blood before the June governorship election by deploying misinformation and disinformation to hoodwink the electorate, Mr Fayose has found the value of misleading the electorate to achieve predetermined political objectives quite entrancing. Thus hundreds of thousands of text messages were disseminated to convince Ekiti voters and anyone else straying into the line of fire that the former governor, Kayode Fayemi, had enriched himself and enriched his godfathers. Spurious claims of costly diversion of state resources by Dr Fayemi for personal aggrandizement were told in the text messages. The public believed. After the elections, the same Fayose team also told stories of how hundreds of millions of naira had been budgeted to subvert the inauguration of the governor-elect. On the basis of this unproven stories, Ekiti foot soldiers were whipped into a self-help frenzy to subvert the judicial process and frustrate the natural course of justice.

Seeing how successful that method was, and recognising tantalisingly that all the new governor needed was to modify a formula that is proving so effective, Mr Fayose has arbitrarily assigned figures to how much his predecessor spent on certain items and projects, proceeded to denounce those figures without proof, and elicited curses and mob action from the people of Ekiti. They have uncritically swallowed Mr Fayose’s accounts, and are bewitched by his words and populist inclinations. Reminiscent of Nazi era propaganda, and like every fascist government throughout history, Governor Fayose’s men have also purveyed stories of the opposition’s plot to impeach the new governor, for which, according to them, hundreds of millions of naira had been set aside by opposition leaders. There are already demonstrations by hundreds of Ekiti people denouncing the said plot. There will be more such stories coming out of Ekiti in the following weeks and months, all designed to malign reputations, instigate the people into unlawful acts and achieve predetermined goals.

This lurch to fascism is not limited to Ekiti as a state, nor to Mr Fayose as a person. In fact he seems to have been inspired by the Jonathan presidency, which is replicating the same fascistic style in many parts of the country, especially the Southwest. It was this style that made the Jonathan presidency embrace the Iyiola Omisore option for Osun. And it is this same style that is inspiring the return of Adebayo Alao-Akala in Oyo State, the Gbenga Daniel/Buruji Kashamu confederacy in Ogun State, and the Musiliu Obanikoro option in Lagos State. It was this sinister and cynical approach in the first instance that inspired the president into introducing Jelili Adesiyan and Mr Obanikoro into his cabinet. As events showed soon after, it was clear they were not brought into the Jonathan cabinet because they had anything to offer, seeing how roguishly they behaved during the Ekiti and Osun governorship polls. They were hired for a decidedly malevolent purpose, and they have not disappointed.

The opposition cannot set the tone for the ennoblement of Nigerian politics; it is first and foremost the responsibility of the government. The opposition can only respond dignifiedly to the fluctuating mood and temper of the Jonathan presidency; but so far, they have not responded adequately enough to overcome the ruling party’s subterfuge. Indeed, given the temper of the Jonathan government, it is apparent neither the president nor his men understand which direction to head, or that as things stand decadently, they appreciate what must be done to bring about healing and progress. I do not malign them. Not only have they fumed and sulked against the independence of the House of Representatives under Hon Aminu Tambuwal, seeking to rein him in and castrate the lower chamber like they did to the Senate, they have also renewed their plot to replace the Speaker with the grovelling Hon Mulikat Adeola-Akande. They have found it difficult to understand that the health of Nigerian democracy is contingent upon the independence of the legislature and judiciary, and the principle of virile checks and balances without which democracy will be doomed.

But perhaps the most damaging propaganda embarked upon by the Jonathan government is turning the table effortlessly against the opposition on the Boko Haram controversy. The terror group and its violent acts predate both the Jonathan government and that of his predecessor, former president Umaru Yar’Adua. But by some incredible feats of propaganda, the Jonathan government has made it seem like the insurgency was inspired by the North and executed by the APC, both as a religious and ethnic plot to make the country ungovernable for Dr Jonathan, and to indicate that no one else but a northerner could and should rule. Sadly, the propaganda has caught on, especially in religious circles and among the unthinking elite of the Southeast and Southwest.

There is very little anyone can say to dissuade the PDP from intensifying its destructive propaganda, regardless of the cost to the county. It brings them much gain, and they will kick viciously should anyone try to smother their efforts and style. What stands in the way of the dangerous lurch to fascism and state failure is the opposition’s ability to counter the ruling party’s bitter and unconscionable propaganda. But if the spineless acquiescence of Ekiti to Mr Fayose’s trickeries is a judge, the opposition will have to look for other ingenious stratagems to demolish the PDP’s architecture of misinformation and disinformation, and to demolish the bastions of fascism they have begun to erect with shocking lack of concern for the peace and health of Nigeria.