APC's candidate, Mallam Saliu Mustapha's lies, desperation and propaganda.

 

By Abdulmajeed Fatiu.

In recent times and especially as we have 6months to run general elections, a new trend has been noticed among the Kwara APC and their followers. "Kwarans couldn't point at a single Infrastructure done by the Turaki of Ilorin and self acclaimed philanthropist ” than playing bitterness politics in kwara of today.

The situation has changed from what it was during the PDP's Government years back. It seems the tag “Otoge” that was initially placed on the nature of campaigns was to defraud kwarans.

The tone and “texture” of everything has changed. What started as a “cruisade” for some of the candidates seem to have been too early to call.

Kwarans have realised this and to forestall a defeat, they are exhibiting acts that can only be described as desperation.

The Turaki of Ilorin and his supporters are desperate now. They are not hiding this. Despite having zero pedigree to represent the world class Kwara central at the Senate, They are becoming more of “cries” of war than the usual party slogans of *FAKE OTOGEISM* .

 And as the D-Day is fast approaching, there is no more room for politics of big men in kwara again, all candidates must go to podium to speak on why he or she deems fit to represent the people. The time for drama is gone. But for a few “tired legs” National Assembly is a big room for people with Big Ideas on the podium to let Nigeria work again.

Battle line is now clearly drawn. It is a battle for the people with real solutions as two major political parties are putting themselves up as saviours of the our dear state. In one corner is the opposition party, which throughout its 3years of existence , they have destroyed the atmosphere of kwara, kwarans now steam to “chase out” the incumbent. The cornerstone of the party’s manifesto is "lies and propaganda”. While on the other side is the self styled “big money". 

The unique selling word for the APC is “continuity of lies” 

As we journey towards General Elections, some backers of the candidates are showing how desperate they are. They are gradually shedding the “gentlemanly” toga they had “pretentiously” adorned themselves with before. It is as if they had retreated to their “bunkers” to re-evaluate their strategies and came out with propaganda as the tool for winning.

They therefore have carefully and systematically replaced the word “campaign” with “propaganda”. In rallies, traditional media and social media networks, the APC Gubernatorial Candidate in kwara Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazak and the Turaki are trying to outdo each other. They definitely are strictly keeping heads and using propaganda as winning tool, which is “ideas or statements that may be false or exaggerated and that are used in order to gain support for their reckless government, etc.”

Have we not noticed of recently that the kwara APC senatorial candidate and the Turaki of Ilorin was involved in hand to hand fight with a napep driver? Facts are distorted and shared daily as truth. Then APC started manipulating and sharing fake to do a bad coverup.

Although this election will not be the first in the kwara history to be based on propaganda by the APC government, it is, however, going down in history as the most fought based on lies and half truths. What we are witnessing right now is propaganda “high volume” propaganda. APC candidates descending so low to “encourage” lies as truths, trying to hoodwink the populace. We, the masses, seem not to mind though, as we also have our own share of the blame.

There are “citizen” reporters all over the places, sharing lies and half truths in their blogs. However, the danger is that these “citizen” journalists, because they are not regulated, are doing more damage to the art of reporting or writing than any other group. They have become dangerous mouthpieces for “senseless” politicians who seem not to care for anything apart from their ascendancy to power.

How long shall we go before majority of people realise that elections into public offices is not a matter of do or die? If only we can change the psyche of these politicians, that it is all about service and not the luxury of the post or office, may be there would be sanity. However, with what is being witnessed in the country among the incubents APC, it is glaring that service is not the motivating factor for contesting.

The concern is not with the politicians though. It is the followership. Nigerian political supporters are known to be die hard fanatics, who only see the good in their leaders and are ready to “violently” defend anything negative said about them. When properly “tuned” and “wired” they can go to any length. They are very “inflamable” at any slight prompting. We are witnesses to the aftermath of unguided statements by some politicians before, during and after elections in the past. What happened during the 2019 in kwara is still fresh in our ‘history’, We could not have hastily forgotten what happened.

Let us appeal to the APC candidates to calm down. And to the supporters, they should realise that the state is bigger than an individual, group of individuals or a political party. To observers, what happens before, during and after the 2019 has determined whom they are,  We are seeing what is happening now, we do not know what would happen on or after the Election Day. But one thing is glaring, kwarans still have so much to learn and to take in on elections process.

Abdulmajeed Fatiu is from Ilorin, based in Kaduna.