4th March, 2015
In the last few weeks politicians and their supporters have resorted to the use of vile language to denigrate their opponents. Rather than dwell on issues, campaigners now employ hollow rhetorics dripping with foul language to run down their political opponents. The worst culprits are Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, campaign spokespersons, advert designers and even leading members of the party who have thrown caution to the wind by using gutter language to describe their opponents in the All Progressives Congress, APC.
It started when a television station began to air a hate commercial against the presidential candidate of APC, General Muhammadu Buhari. In the commercial, Buhari was not only attacked. Deceased members of his family were also derided. At the end, rather than damage Buhari’s reputation, the commercial drew support for Buhari and condemnation for the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan, the sponsors of the advert.
Patience, Jonathan’s wife, has also joined the fray. She uses uncouth language to describe Buhari. The latest being that Buhari is brain dead. If she knew what it means to be brain dead, she may have thought twice before making such a statement during her recent campaign rally for her husband. Patience even took her affront too far when she told the crowd at the rally that they should stone anyone that chants change. That is the level Nigeria has sunk lately.
The Director of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode is at the forefront of these hate campaigns, some of which are so senseless that they border on lunacy. He has a co-traveller in Ayo Fayose, the Governor of Ekiti State who has sponsored several asinine newspaper adverts wishing Buhari dead. In all this, President Jonathan has not bothered to call his men to order. Rather, he is blissfully relishing the adverts, oblivious of the fact that they are not only doing incalculable damage to his chances of winning the 28 March Presidential election, they are also disgracing our country.
Buhari’s running mate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has also not been spared. He visited a village in Ogun State recently as part of his campaign tour and the photograph he took with a peasant was turned into a campaign issue by PDP support group on social media. Whereas Osinbajo’s father died in 1996, the PDP lied that the man he took the photograph with was his abandoned father. How messy and low could a political campaign get?
It is about time sanity prevailed. Nigeria is not the only country elections have been keenly contested. There was a keen election in Kenya but the political parties and their candidates did not resort to desperate tactics and the use of foul language to have an advantage over their opponents. In other countries, elections are like carnivals where candidates engage in issue-based campaigns and robust debates about what they have to offer the people if voted into power. Why can’t our politicians follow those good examples?
We want the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, NBC, to let its hammer fall on broadcast stations that have been airing disgusting political adverts capable of causing disharmony in the country. Most broadcast stations are blinded by the billions they are collecting from advert placements and have thrown caution to the wind by not vetting adverts before airing them.
The TV stations found wanting and the hate campaigners must exercise caution in the run up to the elections to avoid the negative consequences their action may bring upon the nation. Nigeria is greater than all its politicians.