Battle of the campaign videos By Wale Sokunbi

Goodluck-Jonathan-Al-Jazeera-520x245For many discerning Nigerians, the recent protest by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the alleged plan by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to air a television documentary “to destroy the private life of President Goodluck Jonathan” must rank among the most amusing sights and sounds of the increasingly ridiculous election campaigns in the country. Is this not a case of a PDP pot calling the APC kettle black?

It certainly appears so, considering the fact that Nigerians, in recent weeks, have been fed a diet of odious, mudslinging videos, the most popular of them being the ones against the presidential candidate of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari, and the party’s National Chairman, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu. The sheer venom that oozed out from the two videos is still generating ripples across the country, and it is funny, indeed, seeing the PDP, which cannot absolve itself of responsibility for the two videos, crying wolf over a new video that it said the APC is coming up with.

It will be very difficult, indeed, imagining what the APC could possibly say in a video about President Jonathan that could scratch, even on the surface, the damaging claims in the Buhari/Tinubu videos. Yet, the Media Director of the PDP Presidential Campaign Orgainsation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, was sufficiently worried about the “coming” anti-Jonathan video, to call a press conference in Abuja.

Hear what Fani-Kayode told journalists in Abuja: “We invited you here today to intimate the Nigerian people, through your esteemed media organisations, with a despicable and wicked agenda that is being orchestrated by the opposition to scandalize, undermine and bring into disrepute our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife, First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, our Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and other key government functionaries and members of his administration.

“The special operations and intelligence wing of my Directorate has been reliably informed that the opposition is planning to air a documentary about the private lives of…

“The documentary is riddled with falsehood and it is vulgar, smutty, cheap, shameful and salacious. Our response to this initiative is one of repugnance. That the opposition has degenerated to such a point that in response to legitimate questions that were raised about the record in public office of their presidential candidate, Buhari, and de factor leader, Tinubu, in two major and widely viewed documentaries, the only recourse they have, rather than answering the questions put in those videos, is to try to humiliate, shame and disgrace our presidential candidate by making the most baseless and scandalous accusations about his private life….”

The PDP Media Director went on warn the APC leaders and also unleashed a plethora of insinuations bordering on paedophilia, homosexuality amd sexual exploitation against some unnamed chieftains of the opposition party. He also accused Buhari of considering a deal with some Western countries to legalise same sex marriage in Nigeria!

Already, the Vice presidential candidate of the APC, Prof. Osinbajo, has obtained a court injunction to stop the hearing of a damaging video on him! Are these damaging videos the best way to grow our democracy?

The APC, itself, is never short of seemingly outlandish claims against the PDP! One of the latest of these is the claim that PDP has hired electronic jammers to disable the card reader machines to be used for elections in places that are perceived to be APC strongholds! Efforts are now on to prove that this is responsible for the greater difficulties recorded during the recent test run of the card readers in some parts of the country!

If the truth must be told, the crude mudslinging by operatives of the two leading political parties in the country has become nauseating. No day passes without reports of the crudest and wildest allegations by one or the other of the two political parties. The situation has become so bad that one must  begin to wonder if this contest is really about gaining power to serve the people or to service private pockets. Why, indeed, must politicians demonise one another and play this seeming life and death game to gain power to serve Nigerians?

There is no debating the fact that this electioneering season is among the worst that Nigerians have ever witnessed. The contest is not at all about what the contesting parties can do to address the problems of the people, but which party can wield the biggest tar brush against the other.

The whole situation has become so exasperating that it is beginning to look like the choice  between the two leading parties is like that between a rock and a very hard place. Or, the one between six and half a dozen. Whichever one Nigerians choose, we are likely to end up with the very short end of the stick. Heads or tail, we lose.

This is a very sad situation. One would have expected that with the nation’s long years of experimentation with democracy, the practice of “government of the people, for the people and by the people” would have matured sufficiently and that electoral contests would be about the ability of contestants to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people. Instead, what we have is do-or-die politicking and campaigns tactics that should not be seen even among those contesting for leadership positions in our public markets!

It has become necessary for Nigerians to call these political parties to order. Let them redirect their campaigns to the things that matter and not salacious, twisted and sometimes unfounded allegations in stupid videos.

We are indeed tired of the salacious electioneering videos. Let the battle of seedy videos be replaced with issues-based campaigns. Let politicians up their ante in their campaigns and desist from taking the nation back to the dark old days of crude politicking.

SUN

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