The Director of Media and Publicity of All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Mallam Garba Shehu has said that the failure of President Goodluck Jonathan to deliver democratic dividends to Nigerians has been the root cause of the failure by the President and his Peoples Democratic Party to conduct the ongoing political campaign on issues-base.
Garba Shehu said that because the government of Jonathan had failed, he and his team made non-issues and abuses the order of the day.
The APC campaign spokesman, who spoke when he had an audience with members of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) in his office in Abuja, said: “Ordinarily, Jonathan’s campaign should have been based on his achievements. They are running against their own records.
“So it would have been for them to present their scorecards to Nigerians rather than attacking the presidential candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, who has not attacked anyone.”
Garba Shehu said that contrary to the position being publicised by the PDP, Buhari would not tamper with the free speech of Nigerians, adding: “Men change. Buhari was a military man, but now he is a full democrat. He will not censor online. The censorship of online will come from the community of users itself.”
Garba Shehu said that APC will work with the online publishers to deepen online journalism.
This was even as a former Commissioner for Information in Lagos State and prominent member of the APC, Dele Alake, who was also at the meeting, thanked the online publishers for taking time out to visit the party.
Alake said the coming together of professional journalists to form GOCOP was a good development, adding: “It is a symbol of good things to come.
“Online journalism is the present and future of journalism.
“Most people of voting age are now on social media.
“So whoever takes online media for granted is undoing himself.”
Alake described Buhari as an acerbic leader, saying: “he (Buhari) has held plum positions and remains simple. He is a disciplined man.
“The fulcrum of the problem we have in this country is indiscipline. Now we have an epitome of discipline. What we need in this country at this critical juncture is someone who can extricate us from this abyss.
“Governance is not rocket science. In four years, we can get there. We can meet the basic needs quickly by providing low hanging fruits.
“From there, we can then move on to medium and long term policies, which can be considered as the high hanging fruits.
“Jonathan lacks the courage to rule this country and also none of his subordinates can look him in the eyes and tell him the truth. The country needs a drastic change. Especially for our kids.”
[myad]
The people of Nigeria will resist the attempt of the postponement of elections as this has shown that PDP is afraid of the outcome of the elections. APC is ready to rescue Nigeria. Well said Garba Shehu.