Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state is happy that top members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who boycotted the party’s Presidential campaign rally in Owerri, the state capital on Saturday.
The governor, through his campaign team, Rochas Campaign Organization (RCO) said that it was a good development that Imo people, mostly the PDP members, expected to be at the rally stayed away because the party has shown that it has nothing to offer to Imo people. “We want to also appreciate leaders of the party, especially Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, former Governor of the State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, Chief Arthur Nzeribe and a host of other leaders of the party who also stayed away from the poorly attended rally.” [myad]
Decades of studies in media coverage of election campaigns have revealed excessive focus of the media on horserace and personal quality of candidates at the expense of substantive issues. In Nigeria, media coverage of campaigns is not exactly different. Since 1999 for instance, results about studies on media coverage of presidential election campaigns have discovered overwhelming dominance of horserace frame and less substantive issues. By horserace, it is meant such campaign events including endorsement of candidates, opinion polls, who is winning and who is losing. Though media coverage of the horserace frame and personal quality of candidates sells especially for its entertainment values, it deprives the electorate of the opportunity to make informed electoral choice. Coverage of issues help the electorate understand and appreciate what programmes the candidates would be focusing on and how mentally prepared they are for leadership.
Ahead of the February 14 election, the two main political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) are largely being criticized for their lack of focus on issues (the media share in the blame too for helping to frame campaigns as such). While this criticism is realistic, the PDP seem to be guiltier than the opposition.
A cursory look at the media coverage of the campaigns in the last few weeks show that the ruling party has been more preoccupied with the personality of the presidential candidate of the opposition party than the president’s handling of important national issues. The plethora of personality based advertorials in the papers is enough testimony to this fact as several of them attempt to demystify the integrity and anti-corruption posture of the presidential candidate of the opposition party for his association with the regime of Late head of state, General Sanni Abacha, and depict him as ruthless, wicked and violent.
Two factors are responsible for this heavy dependence on the personal quality frame by the PDP. One is the factor of unproductive incumbency; the other is the nature of its media campaign team. Part of the burden of incumbent leadership seeking re-election is how to convince the people that it has effectively handled the issues of the moment – insecurity, poverty and corruption – which I think concern and appeal to the Nigerian public. There is much likelihood that when the PDP candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan stands in the podium to campaign about what transformation agenda he has for the people, the perceptive public would ask what he has done to address the key issues of insecurity, corruption and poverty in the last six years. It is very possible that this governmental weakness accounts partly for why the media team too has shunned substantive issues – based campaigns and opt for character –based campaigns. Curiously, the PDP found a media spokesperson well-trained in this art of personality hit. For former media aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who now heads the media and publicity team of the party, this is a familiar terrain. He has earned for himself the reputation of attacking even credible people in the opposition camps especially in his days as Obasanjo’s spokesperson.
In his maiden press conference shortly after being appointed to his new position, Fani-Kayode said: “It is our full intention to expose General Muhamadu Buhari for what he really is, what he stands for and the great danger that his candidacy portend for the unity of the Nigerian state and the peace and well-being of the Nigerian people.” And since then, he has consistently unleashed vituperative attacks on Buhari, asking INEC to disqualify him for his inability to submit his West African School Certificate, accusing him of being desperate for power and having a record of fueling post-election violence. He even described APC as a party with “Janjaweed ideology.”
But then how is the APC different in terms of its focus issues as against horserace or personality? Probably not much, for the party has boasted about how Buhari would send Jonathan to retirement. Yet, you could say that it has comparatively addressed issues. In the discourse about issues, the odds are not necessarily against the APC. It is not the party facing the test of leadership performance; it is not the party that needs to render stewardship account to the people in the campaign field; that “honour” is reserved for the PDP. In a way, merely challenging the PDP on the three important issues of how it has managed the economy, fought corruption and addressed the problem of insecurity is a treatment of issues. We see how in the last couple of weeks, the Director of media and publicity of the APC Campaign Team, Malam Garba Shehu, a veteran journalist and Atiku spokesperson for many years has been challenging the PDP on the economy front, asking it to take certain actions such as lowering the pump price of fuel in the face of unrestrained fall in the international oil price. We see how it has challenged the PDP led government to fight the pervasive corruption and secrecy in the NNPC, and promote issues which touch on the essence and general well-being of the nation. Posing these questions indicate there is a failure in the system, and implies that the candidate he speaks for intends to address these issues when he gets to power. What is however, largely missing from this approach, is an articulate programme of what and how these same issues would be addressed. Parties can help the media close these gaps by prioritizing the issues that have individual relevance to them (if they have anyway) and addressing how they would be solved. For instance, the APC presidential candidate has said that one of the ways he would fight corruption was to send corrupt officials to jail. It is left for the electorate to evaluate this statement and allow it guide their electoral decisions. More of these issues could be addressed by parties, spokespersons and the media as the campaign gets hotter. No matter what you think about personality and character –based campaigns, they are less noble than articulation of issues. They appeal to sentiments instead of the people’s sense of rationalization, and they rob the people of the power to hold leaders accountable for any campaign promises. [myad]
Northern youths, under the auspices of Arewa Youth Integrity Forum (AYIF) has promised to mobilise 20 million youths across the nineteen northern states for President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of 2015.
The youths described Jonathan as a statesman who is sympathetic to the plight of his followers even as they hailed him for the courage and bravery shown in visiting Nigerian troops in Maiduguri’s, the IDPs and persons affected by the inhumane activities of members of Boko Haram.
In a statement signed by the National President of AYIF, Hamid Usman, described President Jonathan’s visit to Maiduguri as not only commendable but exemplary for all intending leaders.
“Goodluck Jonathan has proven already that he has what it takes to drive Nigeria to the next level, having defeated the local content of insurgency and ready to fight the foreign elements that have joined world terrorists groups to make Nigeria ungovernable for the citizenry.”
The group said that President Jonathan had proved wrong a section of northern elders who said the president cannot visit anywhere in the north, demonstrating that no section of the country has a right to deny any performing leader from aspiring to any leadership position under our constitution. “We are confident that Mr. President will campaign anywhere in Nigeria even the north where it has been proven that he is popular against the propaganda advanced by spent horses. We are also confident that he will trump his competitors at the polls.”
The group said that it is working round the clock to make sure that “we mobilize 20 million votes for the President and ensure that the votes are protected up to the final collation centre in Abuja to guarantee his victory.” [myad]
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organization has alerted Nigerians over a statement posted on Facebook by an official of the Presidency which said that the government (of PDP) will rather hand over power to the military rather than to General Muhammadu Buhari in the event that the APC candidate wins the February 14 election. “The Blackberry Messenger (BBM) statement by Deji Adeyanju, an official in the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe said “Buhari can never be President of Nigeria. Quote me any day any time. Instead of Buhari to become President of Nigeria, Nigeria would rather break. A military coup will even be allowed than for Buhari to become the president of a democratic Nigeria quote me any day, any time.” Presidential campaign spokesman, Mallam Garan Shehu said in Abuja that the statement by the official who handles Dr. Doyin Okupe’s Twitter handle has not been denied or retracted, saying that unless it is convincingly rebutted, the statement above, by the ruling party appears to clearly be uninterested in free, fair and conclusive elections, but rather to engender crisis and chaos if it happens that the APC candidate, General Buhari wins the elections. “This revelation in a public statement via the BBM would appear to support the PDP’s avowed determination to rule for 60 years, a boast echoed repeatedly by some former national chairmen of the party. The boast however did not reckon with the emergence of the All Progressives Congress and the determination with which the party mobilized and stuck together to confront the PDP that over time had prided itself with invisibility. “We of the APC hereby call on all Nigerians to be vigilant and ensure that no one is allowed to truncate the 2015 elections. It is also important that all Nigerians allow peace to reign and insist on free and fair polls to assist the process of peaceful and democratic transition. “Similarly, our party, the APC is confident that the men and women of our patriotic Armed Forces and the Police, including other security agencies would discharge their obligations without fear or favour and ensure that the 2015 polls is not only free and fair but also credible leading to the installation of a popular-elected government that will improve the well-being of Nigerians.” [myad]
The Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, Kaduna state, has denied report making the rounds that it ever discovered or treated the Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari of any form of cancer, even as the party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation made it clear that all those who contested for party’s Presidential ticket are still working together for the purpose of winning the February general elections. A statement by the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the APC Campaign in Abuja, quoted the hospital sources as described as disdainful, distractive, mischievous, fake and fallacious the trending news report of an alleged prostate cancer condition of General Buhari. “It (report of cancer) is untrue and condescending of its exponents. I have it on good authority that General Buhari has not visited the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in the last five years. So, how can anyone say that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last October, barely three months ago?” Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the Campaign said. “This is the highest point of political distraction, malice and mischief. The report was not only fake but unfounded. I have spoken to impeccable sources at ABUTH all of whom deny the report and also claimed that the letterhead used was not their regular one, and that Dr. Bala Mohammed that purportedly approved the false Medical Report is not on the personnel list of that department,” he said. Garba Shehu quoted sources at ABUTH as saying also that “Medical Report analysis only come from Laboratory Technologists and not Medical Doctors as handwritten in this particular case, stressing that General Buhari did not attend the hospital for cancer or any other ailment.” He dismissed as figment of the imagination of “wicked and evil persons,” rumour that General Buhari may be travelling to the United States towards the end of this month for medical check up. Stressing that Genral Buhari is as fit as a fiddle, Garba Shehu dismissed the report as fabrications, adding however: “as a prominent leader of the opposition, many interests across the Globe want him (GMB) over for political and diplomatic consultations. The invitation to the US may not be unconnected to this.” He also dismissed as utterly false and ridiculous allegations by the ruling PDP that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other former APC presidential aspirants, Sam Nda-Isaiah and Rabiu Kwankwaso have abandoned the APC Presidential Campaign. Garba Shehu said that there was no iota of truth whatsoever that Atiku or other party stalwarts have distanced themselves from the campaign. According to him, contrary to the deliberate falsehood being peddled by PDP, the former Vice President is currently out of the country for medical examination, and that he would be actively involved in the campaign once he is back to the country from next week. Garba Shehu emphasized that Atiku’s commitment to the campaign in his native state, Adamawa and the nation “is total” and that “no amount of PDP’s desperate tactics of deliberate falsehoods would break the unity of the APC leaders.” The campaign publicity chieftain said that the PDP allegation was a figment of their own imagination and that it was aimed at weakening the cohesion within the opposition members, adding that the “ruling party is increasingly nervous as the February 14 elections approaches.” He advised Nigerians to ignore the “rubbish being peddled by the PDP.” He said that it is well-known also that the former presidential aspirant, Sam Nda-Isaiah is currently on holiday in the United States of America. He quoted Nda-Isaiah who spoke from the US over the weekend as saying: “I am working everyday from here to ensure total victory for the APC. I am in America, and I know what the media and the public officials are saying and that they expect a change in Nigeria because things cannot continue like this. They are very worried. “I am in touch with Garba, Amaechi, party chairman, Kwankwaso and I am actually on my way to participate in the campaign to ensure that the change that Nigerians are earnestly desiring is enthroned in the February elections.” Garba Shehu said that Governor Rabiu Kwankanso has consistently spoken of General Buhari’s emergence as a candidate, saying that he felt like it is his own personal victory. “The Director of Media to Kwankwaso informed the APC Campaign that as at about 4:00PM (late yesterday afternoon), the Governor was on the stomp in Bichi Local Government asking for votes for Buhari, and that Kano will host the Presidential Campaign on Tuesday.” The publicity chieftain asked the PDP-led federal government, which controls the Police and the army to concentrate on the duty of providing a safe environment for democratic elections throughout the country, especially in view of the continuing bombing of APC party offices in Rivers State. [myad]
The Independent Television (ITV), owned by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, has apologized to the Governor of Edo state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole over a report it aired which it admitted was full of lies. The report, aired on both its Television and Radio stations, said that the Governor’s aides beat up a Catholic Priest at Ujogba. In a retraction and apology which was aired yesterday, the Television station said: “we hereby tender our unreserved apology for the embarrassment the broadcast must have caused the Governor and Government of Edo State. We want to reassure the Government and the people of our commitment to the peace and stability of our dear state.” The TV station had aired a fabricated report on January 12 that the Governor’s aides beat up a Catholic Priest for refusing to yield the way for the Governor’s convoy. The station reported that the incident happened at Ujogba, Esan West Local Government Area of the state where the Governor had gone to commission a project. However, the Governor neither went to Ujogba nor commissioned a project there, rather the Governor had commissioned the Amedokhian-Ugboha road in company with his Lagos State counterpart and no such incident took place. The Governor had refuted the report in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary and asked the Television station to retract same and issue an apology on same station. According to Okhiria: “the said report is not only callous, malicious and wicked, but clearly portrays ITV and its proprietor as the devil’s advocates who churn out falsehood to denigrate the Oshiomhole administration. “While we state that the Governor was never at Ujogba as reported by the TV station, the Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, is known to be proudly Catholic and has boasted about his faith at many fora. “It is a fact that the Governor enjoys a robust relationship with the Catholic Church moreso as a baptized practicing Catholic. He is also in good standing with the Archbishop, Priests and Laity of Benin City Archdiocese, Auchi Diocese and Uromi Diocese. To the best of our knowledge, the ITV report was deliberately fabricated to promote hate sentiment against the Governor by the Catholic faithful.” The Catholic Church also refuted the report in a statement issued by Reverend Father Andrew Obinyan, the Parish Priest of St Albert’s Catholic Church, University of Benin while giving a homily. According to the Church, the ITV report “was a tale concocted to drag the Holy Catholic Church into the fray of politics of the APC and the PDP”, adding that “what is happening is a sad reflection of the intensity of the wave of political sentiments and the length to which some parties would go to paint the opposition black.” [myad]
Of course, with the assumption, rightly and or wrongly that the two main combatants: Presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan and that for All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, in the February 2015 general elections in Nigeria, hold the ace to peaceful or otherwise of the elections, they were brought, along with other stakeholders, to sign what was termed Abuja Peace Accord on Wednesday, January 14. And when Jonathan and Buhari, in the process of signing the Peace Accord, embraced each other publicly, nearly all Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief believing that the trouble looming in the air was all over. Of course, in both reality and by implication, the signing of Peace Accord by the two supposed combatants should have signified a big break-away from the war-song that was gradually turning the country into frightening entity. Indeed, before Wednesday, many Nigerians had started moving their households to their homes: from the North to the South and from other parts of the country to other parts of the country in fear of the looming Armageddon. The fear, amongst the citizenry, of disaster occurring before, during and after the February elections, was founded on the behavioural pattern of the political campaign arrow-heads, i.e. Presidential candidates of the two main political parties in the country. But, despite the Wednesday Peace Accord Treaty amongst the stakeholders, the war songs, the bad-mouthed statements and campaigns of calumny are still ongoing amongst the die-hard supporters of the big masquerades. What was the content of the Peace Accord which the Presidential candidates signed? They pledged among others, to refrain from “campaigns that will involve religious sentiments, ethnic or tribal profiling, both by ourselves and all agents acting in our name. “To refrain from making or causing to make in our names or that of our parties any public statement, pronouncement, declaration or speeches that have the capacity to incite any form of violence before, during and after the elections. “To forcefully and publicly speak out against provocative utterances and oppose all acts of electoral violence whether perpetuated by our supporters and, or opponents. “To commit ourselves and political parties to the monitoring of the adherence of this Accord if necessary, by a national peace committee made up of respected statesmen and women, traditional and religious leaders.’’ As a matter of fact, before the signing of the Abuja Peace Accord, the major headaches of Nigeria were, on the side of General Buhari, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano state and governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state and other foot soldiers. And on the side of President Jonathan were Dr. Doyin Okupe, Barrister Olisa Metuh, Femi Fani-Kayode, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state, Chief Edwin Clark among other surrogates. But less than 24 hours after the signing of the Peace Accord, while substantial number of such fire-spitting supporters of the two combatants subsided, even if for a while, the governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio refused to down-tool. He went to town with a threat that the only way Nigeria can remain in peace and unity is to re-elect President Jonathan in the February 14 election. His Delta state counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, at a different occasion, also made it clear that Niger Delta people would not negotiate the second term election of President Jonathan. As if that was not enough, the ex-Niger Delta war lord, Asari Dokubo also went on the air, in an interview on Channels TV, openly insulting not only General Buhari but all the Northerners. Not only that, a few days later, the same Dokubo accused President Jonathan of paying a visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom he described as (Jonathan’s) enemy that should have been arrested and detained. He also accused President Jonathan of putting his enemies, whom he called “Gambari” from the Northern part of the country in the security system to fight Boko Haram. He even said: “I hate Nigeria.” (An average normal human being would do anything to destroy anything he or she hates. Do we take it then that Asari Dokubo is in this category?) Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday (Friday), cast doubt over the workability of the Peace Accord even as he added his own salt to the wound which the Peace Accord sought to heel. What has been missing in all the noises about the cry of war, war and war that have been coming from our brothers from Niger Delta in favour of their brother, President Jonathan, is the inability of the side of President Jonathan to effect the part of the Accord that talked about “restraining supporters” from drumming war song. From the beginning, it had never been the two principal actors that have been responsible for a heated political environment with provocative statements, and if they were, they could, and have easily refrained from such acts. It is the supporters, with some kind of ulterior motives that have been the main headaches. Obviously, if the supporters of President Jonathan have refused, as they have done, to respect the content and spirit of the Peace Accord by throwing insults at the other side, what would happen is a reversion to the unruly situation that prevailed before the Peace Accord. There is something the leaders of the Niger Delta region that are threatening fire and brimstone have forgotten: that Jonathan became President with combined votes of people across Nigeria. And that Nigerians from all walks of life cast such votes freely for him in 2011 without anybody using force. And that in 2015, in line with the principle of Democracy, it is and would be under the same condition that Jonathan should be returned to power. Threatening that the heaven will fall if Nigerians decide this time, to vote against him for reasons best known to them, is taking them (Nigerians) for a ride or saying that they are fools. The Niger Delta leaders are simply saying now that Nigerians should, in February 2015, resort to another form of strange Democracy or electoral process, where they would cast their votes based on fear, simply to avoid war or trouble. And, who determines where the pendulum would swing in war? Muscle flexing, using war-like threats to cajole the electorate in a democratic practice, apart from amounting to veiled rigging, is also a sign of weakness. It amounts to what late Fela Anikulapo Kuti described as “Shakara.” You may know the level of your strength, as Asari Dokubo confessed that the Niger Delta Militants still have sophisticated guns and weapons in their possession (to execute his imagined war with Northern “Gambari,”) but you don’t know the strength of the group you are charging at. It would therefore profit all of us, Nigerians, wherever we are, to respect one anothers’ strength and weakness, because, we all have the two sides. In any case, whatever happened to the principle of persuasion in an ideal election, away from eye-balls that are growing into ultra-red and rolling in their sockets while the chests are beating at hypertensive level as bodies are quivering!
Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa state has given the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), one of the machineries campaigning for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in the February election for his second-term in office, quit notice. The governor ordered it to leave the state and stop campaigning for the President, in what appears a battle between the governor and loyalists of the president’s wife who are in charge of the organization in the State.
In a press statement today signed by the governor’s spokesperson, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, governor Dickson directed the leadership of the TAN to immediately leave Bayelsa State.
The group had for several months staged massive rallies in support of President Jonathan long before the formal kick-off of electioneering in the country. At the time, the group claimed it was campaigning to convince Jonathan to seek re-election.
But in a fresh twist in relations between the governor and the wife of the president, whose loyalists are said to be in control of TAN in the state, governor Dickson accused the group of promoting subversive activities and inciting crisis and divisions within the PDP in the State.
The governor, who gave the warning at a meeting with the Peoples Democratic Party’s flag bearers for February general elections at the party’s secretariat in Yenagoa, said he is responsible for directing campaigns for President Jonathan in the state.
He described the PDP in the state as the only recognized political platform and structure saddled with the responsibility of leading the president’s campaign in the state with him as party leader.
Governor Dickson said the activities of TAN have outlived their usefulness even as he alleged that TAN and some members of its top hierarchy have become tools of subversion, creating needless rancour, acrimony and divisions.
According to the governor, the activities of TAN and the other groups, if not checked, could be counterproductive, especially with the presidential and other elections, only a few weeks away.
He said that he has the mandate of Bayelsa people to protect the stability, peace and security of the State.
The governor, who announced the planned visit of President Jonathan to the state, said he would use the opportunity on February 5 to express appreciation to Nigerians for their unwavering support and solidarity to the Jonathan administration.
The governor emphasized that Bayelsa State is a stronghold of the PDP and a strong support base for President Jonathan, whom he noted, does not need to campaign in his home state.
An unnamed official of TAN, who was contacted for comments, described the allegations as “wild and unfounded” adding that TAN had noted three unprovoked attacks on the organizations.
He said that the organization will deliberate and issue a statement in response to the comments by the governor.
“It is very primitive of someone who claims to be working for the President to try to attack an organization build to promote the candidacy of the same President, this development has exposed the workings of his mind,” the TAN official said. [myad]
Former leader of the Niger Delta People’s Salvation and Volunteer Force (NDSVF) Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo has made it clear that the Niger Delta Militants are still keeping more sophisticated guns than the ones they submitted as a mark of surrendering to the Nigerian state.
“We are warning the Boko Haram not to harm our people because if they do, we will tell Nigeria that we have more sophisticated guns than the ones we submitted.”
Asari-Dokubo who spoke today at Bungavilla Hotel, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, while addressing students of King Amachree African University, Cotonou, Benin Republic said that many people are angry with President Goodluck Jonathan’s leadership style.
He said Jonathan would have enjoyed an easy ride back to Aso Rock if he had done things properly, accusing him of squandering his political goodwill, which, he said, made him to tolerate his enemies instead of jailing them.
He described the recent visit by Jonathan to former President Olusegun Obasanjo as an embarrassment to the office of the President.
“You don’t naked the office of the President, but Jonathan has done that by not dealing decisively with his enemies. For instance, he has no business going to Abeokuta to see Obasanjo, he has squandered the political goodwill he has.”
“A lot of our people especially in Niger Delta are angry with Jonathan but they have no option than to vote for him because what is coming is worst than him. Goodluck Jonathan would have enjoyed an easy ride if he had done things strictly the way the people want it to be.”
On insecurity, Asari-Dokubo said Jonathan would not make any progress because those managing the security are against the president.
He alleged that top military officers in collaboration with some politicians in the North are the one frustrating the military victory over insurgency and by extension frustrating the government of Jonathan.
“The Vice-President is a Fulani man, Inspector-General of Police is a Gambari man, National Security Adviser is a Gambari man and Defence Minister is a Gambari man. The security arms are in the hands of those who are fighting him. How do you think he can do better in this area?
“The same people who are fighting him are the one he allows to manage security? It is like asking the rat to look after the fish.” [myad]
The General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye has branded politicians liars and cannot be trusted. Adeboye spoke today at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, at a two-day interdenominational prayer. According to the cleric, politicians in most cases hardly fulfill their promises, even as he justified his position by giving an illustration with the story of three travellers – an Indian, a Jew and a politician.
According to him while on their journey, the three travellers had some challenges, and went to a farmer for help but the farmer said he could only accommodate two.
He said the Indian volunteered to sleep in the barn but returned a few minutes later that there was a cow there. The Indian, according to the illustration, said he can’t sleep there because cows are gods, worshipped in his country.
Adeboye said the Jew also came back complaining that the pig inside where he was placed was unclean, adding that the politician volunteered to go and sleep among the pigs.
Instead of the politician to come back complaining, Adeboye said, it was the pig and cow that came knocking that the politician be sent away because he had promised to make the environment, including the barn, conducive with air-conditioner.
“I don’t trust politicians; politicians are liars. They don’t fulfill most of their promises. A politician can tell you that they will give all of you (students) chicken each, which we all know it is impossible.”
The RCCG general overseer, whose one of his pastors, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), is the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), asked Nigerian to stop worrying themselves about who would emerge winner in the next election.
He explained that God is a “master planner,” who already planned the leadership development of Nigeria.
“Stop disturbing yourself about who will be the President of Nigeria. God has already planned who will be the President of Nigeria. God has already planned that before we were born. God is not like human beings, who doubt what is to be done. He has plan for everything.”
Vice-Chancellor of OAU, Professor Bamitale Omole commended Adeboye for his yearly presence in the university, saying his divine intervention is having positive impacts in the school.
“We appreciate the love of Pastor Adeboye. With God and his presence last year, we had no calamities and also emerged as the best university in Nigeria. I urge students to be prayerful and cautious of what they do as God will continue to protect us.” [myad]
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The Media, The Parties And The Campaign Issues, By Habib Yakoob
Decades of studies in media coverage of election campaigns have revealed excessive focus of the media on horserace and personal quality of candidates at the expense of substantive issues. In Nigeria, media coverage of campaigns is not exactly different. Since 1999 for instance, results about studies on media coverage of presidential election campaigns have discovered overwhelming dominance of horserace frame and less substantive issues. By horserace, it is meant such campaign events including endorsement of candidates, opinion polls, who is winning and who is losing. Though media coverage of the horserace frame and personal quality of candidates sells especially for its entertainment values, it deprives the electorate of the opportunity to make informed electoral choice. Coverage of issues help the electorate understand and appreciate what programmes the candidates would be focusing on and how mentally prepared they are for leadership.
Ahead of the February 14 election, the two main political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) are largely being criticized for their lack of focus on issues (the media share in the blame too for helping to frame campaigns as such). While this criticism is realistic, the PDP seem to be guiltier than the opposition.
A cursory look at the media coverage of the campaigns in the last few weeks show that the ruling party has been more preoccupied with the personality of the presidential candidate of the opposition party than the president’s handling of important national issues. The plethora of personality based advertorials in the papers is enough testimony to this fact as several of them attempt to demystify the integrity and anti-corruption posture of the presidential candidate of the opposition party for his association with the regime of Late head of state, General Sanni Abacha, and depict him as ruthless, wicked and violent.
Two factors are responsible for this heavy dependence on the personal quality frame by the PDP. One is the factor of unproductive incumbency; the other is the nature of its media campaign team. Part of the burden of incumbent leadership seeking re-election is how to convince the people that it has effectively handled the issues of the moment – insecurity, poverty and corruption – which I think concern and appeal to the Nigerian public. There is much likelihood that when the PDP candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan stands in the podium to campaign about what transformation agenda he has for the people, the perceptive public would ask what he has done to address the key issues of insecurity, corruption and poverty in the last six years. It is very possible that this governmental weakness accounts partly for why the media team too has shunned substantive issues – based campaigns and opt for character –based campaigns. Curiously, the PDP found a media spokesperson well-trained in this art of personality hit. For former media aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who now heads the media and publicity team of the party, this is a familiar terrain. He has earned for himself the reputation of attacking even credible people in the opposition camps especially in his days as Obasanjo’s spokesperson.
In his maiden press conference shortly after being appointed to his new position, Fani-Kayode said: “It is our full intention to expose General Muhamadu Buhari for what he really is, what he stands for and the great danger that his candidacy portend for the unity of the Nigerian state and the peace and well-being of the Nigerian people.” And since then, he has consistently unleashed vituperative attacks on Buhari, asking INEC to disqualify him for his inability to submit his West African School Certificate, accusing him of being desperate for power and having a record of fueling post-election violence. He even described APC as a party with “Janjaweed ideology.”
But then how is the APC different in terms of its focus issues as against horserace or personality? Probably not much, for the party has boasted about how Buhari would send Jonathan to retirement. Yet, you could say that it has comparatively addressed issues. In the discourse about issues, the odds are not necessarily against the APC. It is not the party facing the test of leadership performance; it is not the party that needs to render stewardship account to the people in the campaign field; that “honour” is reserved for the PDP. In a way, merely challenging the PDP on the three important issues of how it has managed the economy, fought corruption and addressed the problem of insecurity is a treatment of issues. We see how in the last couple of weeks, the Director of media and publicity of the APC Campaign Team, Malam Garba Shehu, a veteran journalist and Atiku spokesperson for many years has been challenging the PDP on the economy front, asking it to take certain actions such as lowering the pump price of fuel in the face of unrestrained fall in the international oil price. We see how it has challenged the PDP led government to fight the pervasive corruption and secrecy in the NNPC, and promote issues which touch on the essence and general well-being of the nation. Posing these questions indicate there is a failure in the system, and implies that the candidate he speaks for intends to address these issues when he gets to power. What is however, largely missing from this approach, is an articulate programme of what and how these same issues would be addressed. Parties can help the media close these gaps by prioritizing the issues that have individual relevance to them (if they have anyway) and addressing how they would be solved. For instance, the APC presidential candidate has said that one of the ways he would fight corruption was to send corrupt officials to jail. It is left for the electorate to evaluate this statement and allow it guide their electoral decisions. More of these issues could be addressed by parties, spokespersons and the media as the campaign gets hotter. No matter what you think about personality and character –based campaigns, they are less noble than articulation of issues. They appeal to sentiments instead of the people’s sense of rationalization, and they rob the people of the power to hold leaders accountable for any campaign promises. [myad]