For over a year before the official lifting of the ban on campaigns ahead 2015 elections, INEC has seemed helpless over anonymous banners and other surreptitious campaign strategies, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, reports
The rule of the game is for political parties and aspirants to flag-off campaigns after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would have blown the whistle formally. Not so with the 2015 General Elections.
As far back as 2013, over a year before the official kick-off of the campaigns, major actors have devised surreptitious campaign strategies to beat INEC. So far, observers say virtually all the major actors, from the seat of power in Abuja to the remotest local councils, may have devised illegal means of campaigning before the whistle. The list has been in-exhaustive:
All through the night that Wednesday, in the first week of January 2013, some faceless youths worked tirelessly, pasting anonymous campaign posters in the choice areas of the Federal Capital Territory (FTC), Abuja.
At sunrise the following morning, residents expressed concern over the glossy second term posters of the president boldly pasted on streetlight poles, walls, dustbins, traffic sheds and other strategic places in the capital city. Some of the posters read, “2015: No vacancy in Aso Rock,” “Let’s do more,” “One good term deserves another,” “Support Dr Goodluck Azikiwe Jonathan for 2015 Presidency.”
Following the widespread complaints, security agents, weeks after, said they were looking for the people that pasted the campaign posters bearing the image of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The president’s political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in its reaction dismissed the suggestion by some observers that the emergence of the anonymous posters means President Goodluck Jonathan has commenced campaign for the 2015 presidential election.
Chief Olisa Metuh, who spoke for the party then said “We are totally unaware of it. I have not even seen it. But we are not unmindful of the fact that several times in the past; a lot of people had taken it upon themselves. The whistle has not been blown for politics. This could be the handiwork of mischief makers,” he said.
Presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, also said: “Those pasting the posters are trying to express their own view. The president had stated that he will talk about the presidency from 2014. Those doing these do not have the consent of the president.”
Abati added: “We do not know those behind the posters. So, the president cannot do anything. Our appeal is that those behind this should allow the president concentrate on the job at hand. The president’s main pre-occupation now is to continue to provide service and quality leadership.”
In spite of these denials, there were reports that Jonathan had, as far back as 2013, secretly commenced his re-election campaigns and had even inaugurated a 21-member committee to work under-ground in preparation for the 2015 political battle.
Denying these, Abati had said then: “This is totally untrue and without any basis in reality. As he has truthfully declared on several occasions, President Jonathan has not yet taken a decision on whether or not he will seek re-election in 2015. He has, therefore, not mandated any individual, committee or organisation to start working on his behalf for the 2015 elections.’’
He added: “Political jobbers and their collaborators in the media should stop heating up the polity with baseless speculations and falsehoods revolving around imaginary plans and schemes by the Presidency for the 2015 elections.”
Abati also acknowledged what he described as an emerging trend whereby political opportunists were using the president’s name to promote themselves and their ambitions.
He lamented that some unscrupulous persons were printing 2015 campaign posters with President Jonathan’s photograph when INEC had yet to announce the beginning of campaigns.
Ironically, this has since become the pattern, as posters of many politicians have since adorned streetlight poles, bus-stop sheds and other strategic locations in Abuja and other major cities across the nation. In all the cases, the politician involved has always denied having anything to do with the posters and besides mere allegations and counter allegations between such politicians and their rivals, law enforcement agencies or INEC have not been able to identify and or punish any sponsor of these illegal campaign posters.
As a result, the political actors have continued to play the game even at a wider dimension while INEC and Nigerians seem helpless. Just last week, there were reports that Jonathan’s campaign posters have again flooded Enugu, the capital of Enugu State, even as residents complained that it was untimely.
Some of the posters, according to residents of Enugu metropolis read: “Join us to forge the nation ahead,” “Mr. President, you deserve some more.” This time however, the posters were allegedly signed by a group called National Youths Support for Jonathan (NUSJ), 2015. But as Dr Francis Mba, said in a chat, “that organisation, if you check its records, must be another faceless group. It amounts to the same thing. Our politicians are using these faceless and jobless entities to ridicule the system. It’s a shame.”
However, it is not only President Jonathan’s posters that have graced the billboards spaces in recent time. The list is indeed endless and in the same fashion, the politicians concerned have denied having any knowledge of the posters. The question observers are asking therefore is who is playing this dangerous game against Nigeria and its democracy?
Just last week, former governor of Abia State and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu’s posters also reportedly littered the major streets of Umuahia and other major cities in Abia State.
Orji has succinctly dissociated himself from the posters purporting his senatorial candidacy and presidential aspiration on the platform of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), describing them as a “flood of deceptive, mischievous and malicious posters.” In a statement issued by his media adviser, Mr. Ebere Wabara, Kalu said: “Only gullible sections of the public and latter day members of the PDP can be misled on where I stand in terms of party membership, loyalty and my political convictions. The people who matter in our party know full well where I belong and my standpoint on national politics.
“I strongly believe in President Goodluck Jonathan’s robust and enduring transformation agenda and holistically subscribe to the profound implementation of the blueprint to the letter.
“No amount of scurrilous blackmail from any oppositional quarter can dissuade me or tarnish my image in the eyes of right-thinking people in the PDP,” Kalu said.
Last year (2013), when similar posters were reported in Abia, Kalu had accused his opponents of being behind the printing of the posters as a way of frustrating his efforts to reconcile with PDP leadership. In a statement by his Special Adviser then, Oyekunle Oyewunmi, Kalu claimed he has uncovered plots to print and circulate presidential campaign posters for 2015 in his name to deceive the people about his political ambitions.
Dissociating Kalu from such posters, Oyewunmi said “any poster proclaiming Uzor Kalu’s declaration for the presidency in 2015 remains the handiwork of his political enemies, who have become more desperate in the last few weeks.”
Governor Theodore Orji himself had cause to also deny knowledge of some posters purporting his interest to contest for a senatorial seat in 2015.
Speaking with newsmen at the Government House, Umuahia on the alleged posters last week, Orji said his aides called his attention to the posters, which adorned strategic locations in Umuahia and its environs after his return from the council of states’ meeting in Abuja.
He said the posters were the handiwork of those urging him to run for the Senate in 2015, especially people from the Abia Central Senatorial Zone.
The governor said that different groups, individuals and communities in the zone had at various times come to persuade him to run for the Senate in the 2015 elections.
“But I continuously tell them that I have not made up my mind and anytime I do, I will make categorical statement regarding their request.
“I have not printed posters, neither have I mandated anybody to print posters for me. Let me put it on record that those posters are not from me.
“I want to suspect those who are urging me to go to the Senate to be the brain behind the printing of the posters,” he said.
He therefore appealed to those behind the campaign posters to exercise restraint and wait until the ban on electioneering was lifted.
The governor also spoke on the recently released INEC timetable for the 2015 general elections, saying it would enable political parties and politicians to make their observations.
He noted that INEC would also have ample time to consider all the complaints and observations and make amends where necessary.
“INEC has released the timetable for the elections early enough to allow politicians to prepare adequately for the exercise.
“It will also help the commission to make adjustments where necessary,” he said.
It would be recalled that in the election timetable released by INEC in January, the body fixed the Presidential and National Assembly elections for February 14, 2015, while the governorship and state Assembly elections were fixed for February 28, 2015.
Other politicians that have had to deny knowledge of campaign posters bearing their names and pictures include former governor Bukola Saraki, who in May this year denied presidential campaign posters bearing his name and picture; Governor Rochas Okorocha, Rivers State Governor Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, Governor Sule Lamido and the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, among others.
Former governor of Kwara State and Senator representing Kwara Central in the National Assembly, Dr Bukola Saraki, had in May denied rumours of his alleged presidential ambition, saying he had no knowledge of his posters which flooded Abuja and Katsina State.
Saraki in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr Bamikole Omishore in Ilorin blamed the development on his political opponents.
The statement read: “This is not the time for politicking on the sensitivity of millions of Nigerians who have in their collective wisdom, elected us as leaders to be the managers and custodians of their welfare and interest.
“It is our strong belief that those working on this barbaric mission do not have the interest of Nigeria at heart but rather to instill their personal and selfish interest and agenda on the Nigeria polity. This is unacceptable…As a politician of repute and as someone who had contested for this exalted position before and one who knows the seriousness such office deserves, printing of posters will definitely not be the starting point of such campaign if at all the need arises.”
In the case of Okorocha, he said in a statement, signed by his SSA on Media, Mr. Sam Onwuemodu that the governor has not made any official pronouncement on his presidential ambition and has not also printed campaign posters to that effect and that he has not set up any campaign organisation.
When posters bearing Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s photograph and that of Governor Sule Lamido for the 2015 presidential election flooded Abuja, Amaechi, who spoke through his Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said he neither has any political ambition for the 2015 presidential election nor printed posters.
In the case of the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, he also distanced himself from the campaign posters that littered Port-Harcourt metropolis bearing his image and interest to contest in Rivers State 2015 governorship election, describing the posters as the handiwork of his detractors, and that the move was aimed at portraying him as an over-ambitious politician.
A statement by his media aide, Simon Nwakaudu, said “Those behind the circulation of such posters are bad losers because the Rivers people and indeed, all Nigerians are better informed and too knowledgeable to be deceived by such fluke.”
It added that Wike was too committed to the success of the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan to indulge in the posting of governorship posters.
Besides printing and circulation of anonymous posters, Nigerians have also expressed concern over organisation of rallies that are in all intents and purposes open campaigns. Here, each of the leading parties has been accused of being guilty. A politician for example, recently said, “The President, has been moving from one part of the country to another campaigning in the name of PDP unity rallies. INEC refused to do something about it.
Commenting on the trend of campaigning before the whistle, Dr Francis Mba, a political scientist, told The Nation: “It is disturbing because it not only shows the level of desperation on the part of the major political actors but also the extent they are ready to lie and deceive Nigerians. How do you want us to believe that in all the cases, it is only their political opponents that are printing and distributing the posters as a way of blackmailing them? Nigerians are too knowledgeable to believe that cock and bull story.”
