The major political parties namely, the All Progressives Congress (APC); the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), as well as their presidential candidates, are currently going round the six geo-political zones of the country and campaigning for votes.
One constant feature of their campaigns, however, is that some of the candidates have refused to adhere to the directive of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to limit their campaign to issues and not malign one another.
Rather than listen to INEC, the presidential candidates of the APC and PDP, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, respectively, decided to launch verbal attacks against one another, instead of unveiling their manifestoes and telling the electorate what programmes they plan to execute after winning the election in February 2023.
Speaking at a rally organised by the Lagos State chapter of the APC on Saturday, November 26, 2022, Bola Tinubu said Atiku Abubakar was part of the PDP’s misrule of Nigeria for 16 years and wondered why the opposition party could not fix most of the challenges facing the country when it was in power.
Wondering aloud why the PDP government abandoned the second Niger Bridge, and why the Badagry Express road was abandoned, Tinubu urged the electorate to retire Atiku with their votes in 2023 because he had been vying for the presidential position since 1999.
”Since 1999, Atiku has been aspiring to be President of Nigeria. At a time we had him in our party, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to contest. He contested on the platform of the APC and PDP. He is an ingrate. Tell him to go and sit down at home. Use your PVC to flog him. Tell him to go and retire.
“Don’t listen to what he is saying. He says that he is running to brighten Nigeria’s future. He was in government for 16 years,yet they forgot to reconstruct the Badagry Expressway, they forgot the Second Niger Bridge. He is an ingrate.”
Addressing his supporters at a campaign held in the Onikan area of Lagos, Atiku said that the APC had been lying to the people of Lagos State, claiming that its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was responsible for the development of Lagos.
“The Federal Government built the Third Mainland Bridge. The Federal Government rebuilt Carter Bridge, Agege Motor Road and Ikorodu Road. All the major roads. The APC Government has been telling you lies that they developed Lagos. They did not develop Lagos at all. They are lying to you. Therefore it is time for you, the people of Lagos, to alleviate yourself from a ‘family government’, to the people’s government.
“It is high time you took your destiny in your own hand for your own future and not the future of one family. In the last 23 years, you have been governed by one family. It is your right and it is your duty to take over that governance and hand it over to yourself. That is what the PDP stands for,” the PDP presidential candidate said.
In return, Tinubu also mocked his PDP counterpart, describing him as battle-weary, even before the election. Then noting that Atiku had begun to show signs of frustration, he advised the former Vice President to throw in the towel in order to save face and avoid an imminent and disgraceful defeat at the polls.
Tinubu, in a statement issued on his behalf by the Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson of his Presidential Campaign Council, (PCC), Festus Keyamo, SAN, said: “At the scandalously scanty PDP campaign rally in Lagos State, the candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, decided to take the ignoble path of bare-faced lies by telling the people of Lagos State that the APC candidate, Asiwaju Tinubu did not develop Lagos State, but rather the Federal Government did.
“Tinubu conquered that handicap by performing wonders as governor and subsequently as leader of the ruling party of Lagos State”.
As if following the path taken by their presidential candidates, other chieftains of both parties seem to have adopted a combative approach to the campaigns.
Former Minister of Sports and a PDP Chieftain, Bolaji Abdullahi, has also cautioned Nigerians against voting for the APC in 2023.
Abdullahi said that only Nigerians who love suffering would vote for the APC to remain in power in 2023.
Addressing journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State, he said the APC had ruined Nigeria.
He stressed that Nigerians had suffered enough under President Muhammadu Buhari.
Abdullahi said that Nigerians should not be talking about APC again after the party failed in different sectors.
He insisted that the 2023 election would be between the PDP and other parties.
“You have to have love for suffering to even consider voting for the APC again after it has ruined this country.
“If not for the way things are, nobody should even be talking about APC again after the mess they have brought to the country. The next election is going to be the PDP and any other party but APC,” Abdullahi said.
Also, a member of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, on his part, had issued threats to members of his constituency to either vote for the APC, on Election Day or be dealt with.
The majority leader of the House of Representatives is seeking to return to the House for a record seventh term.
He represents Doguwa/Tudun-Wada Federal Constituency in Kano State.
The Daily Nigerian claimed it obtained a video last Monday, showing Doguwa issuing the threat at a political rally held in Kano.
According to the report, Doguwa spoke mainly in Hausa and also used abusive language to threaten prospective voters.
“To God, who made me, on Election Day, you must vote for APC or we will deal with you. I’m saying it again: on Election Day you either vote for APC, or we deal with you.
“Repeat after me, in Doguwa you either vote for APC or we deal with you,” he said amidst a chorus of applause from the audience,” he said.
The Chief Spokesperson of the Labour Party’s Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, last Thursday cautioned that Tinubu’s speech in a London restaurant is capable of propelling massive violence during the 2023 general election.
He said the APC presidential candidate made this assertion in a London restaurant while addressing his supporters in the Diaspora and the video is in the public domain.
Tanko made this disclosure in an meeting with journalists in Abuja after what he called a careful examination of Tinubu’s speech where he declared that political power should be “grabbed and you run away with it.”
The LP spokesman said, “This coming from a presidential candidate is too unpresidential. How can a man who wants to govern over 200 million Nigerians use such words.
“I don’t think it is appropriate to go to a civilised clime and start talking about power grabbing, in a UK restaurant for that matter. I doubt if the APC presidential candidate has even bothered to sign the peace accord for the 2023 polls.
“If he has done it, then his vituperations on grabbing power may be uncalled for because this is capable of making his supporters have that mindset on using violence to deliver votes.
“Elections must be conducted in a violence-free environment and Tinubu saying things like this is really unpalatable barely three months to the presidential election.
“It is saddening to hear one of the most experienced politicians in Nigeria talking in this manner and people were clapping and hailing him”.
In reaction to the approach of mudslinging and neglect of issue-based campaign, the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has advised the spokespersons of the presidential candidates of the leading political parties not to heat up the polity.
According to Kalu, every presidential candidate should present his plans to Nigerians without insulting another candidate.
Kalu stated this after receiving an award from the Senate Press Corps as the best performing senator on constituency projects.
“Everybody in Nigeria knows that there are four leading candidates in the 2023 presidential election, but their spokespersons are not giving Nigerians the required information regarding programmes and agenda of their principals on the myriad of challenges facing the Nation.
“What Nigerians want to hear from the four leading candidates of the four formidable political parties are their plans on how to turn around the nation‘s economy, end insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other challenges bedeviling the country.
“Nigerians are tired of rhetoric on the personal lives of the presidential candidates as churned out by their spokespersons who should be focusing on what their principals have in stock for the people across the various sectors,”Kalu said.
It should also be recalled that before the commencement of the presidential campaigns, INEC warned that a political message or slogan must not be tainted with abusive language that is directly or indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings.
INEC also said that abusive, intemperate, slanderous or base language or innuendoes designed or likely to provoke violent reactions or emotions shall not be employed or used in political campaigns.
Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman, threw caution and also reminded the media of their constitutional and legal obligations, saying state apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election.
“In other words, equal coverage and visibility shall be allotted to all political parties by all public print and electronic media organisations. The same applies in equal measure to private owned media organisations subject to payment of appropriate fees,” he said.
The INEC chairman urged all the 18 registered political parties to critically study and pay attention to the provisions of the Constitution, the Electoral Act, the Police Act and the Public Order Act for the proper and peaceful conduct of political campaigns, rallies and processions.
Also as political parties and candidates were preparing for the commencement of campaigns, the police warned politicians and their supporters against engaging in hate speech and cyberbullying.
The police threatened to prosecute violators in accordance with relevant laws, adding that they could be charged under the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, Electoral Act or even Terrorism (Prevention) Act, depending on the content of the speeches.
More than what obtained in the past, the cyberspace, especially social media platforms, has increasingly become a potent tool for mobilisation, campaigns and exchange of ideas by supporters of political parties and the different candidates. However, there have also been incidences of personal attacks on individuals on some of the platforms.
The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, also asked victims of hate speech and cyber bullying to report to the police, promising that prompt action would be taken.
He said, “If anyone is reported to have committed hate speech or cyber bullying, we will carry out our investigation and charge the accused based on the provisions of the constitution and various Acts, ranging from the Cybercrime Act, Electoral Act and Terrorism Act, among others, depending on the content of their speeches and the peculiar situation.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
