All Progressives Congress candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Peoples Democratic Party candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakr, and Labour Party candidate Mr. Peter Obi’s campaigns were at loggerheads yesterday over false information and hate speech.
In a statement, Bayo Onanuga, the director of media and publicity for Tinubu’s campaign, accused Atiku and Obi of funding false information against Tinubu in an effort to have the former governor of Lagos State disqualified. He claimed that this would hurt the pair’s chances of winning the presidency.
The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation responded in kind by requesting Tinubu to come clean about his involvement in the alleged forfeiture of $460,000 related to illicit drugs to authorities in the United States rather than attempting to deflect attention.
In a similar vein, the Obi-Datti campaign of the LP requested that its APC counterpart search within its ranks for those responsible for the alleged forgery of the letter-headed paper of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue a false statement. The LP campaign said it was disheartening that a party whose candidate had a history of falsifying documents could have the audacity to accuse innocent people of doing the same.
Prior to the 2023 general elections, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) recommended political parties and their candidates to concentrate on issues in their campaigns. Tinubu, Atiku, and Obi quarreled during this time.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which also issued a warning to legislators, claimed that hate speech constituted a serious threat to the cohesion and stability of a democratic society, the defense of human rights, and the application of the law.
Tinubu to Atiku, Obi: “Sponsoring fake news against me won’t assist you.
Atiku and Obi were forewarned by Tinubu’s campaign against funding fake news to damage Tinubu’s reputation, which it claimed would harm their chances of winning the presidency in 2023. Tinubu’s campaign stated: “The opposition Peoples Democratic Party and its subsidiary: Labour Party, having realized they have no sure path to victory in the February 2023 presidential election, increased their campaign of calumny, disinformation, and misinformation on Saturday by sponsoring fake news against the All Progressive
According to Onanuga, “They did so by counterfeiting the Independent National Electoral Commission’s letterhead and the signature of its national commissioner, Festus Okoye.”
The APC campaign team claims that the false statement reportedly released by INEC was spread to mislead the trusting public that INEC was looking into allegations against Asiwaju Tinubu, which they desperately hoped would lead to the front-runner APC presidential candidate’s expulsion.
The ruling party urged the police to look into the people who made the false declaration and bring them to justice.
“We are not at all shocked by the misbehavior of the faltering opposition parties. What shocked us was how quickly certain tainted media outlets swallowed the rumor whole, without even attempting to verify it.
“We can see why they did it; they were working in collusion with the opposition to discredit Asiwaju Tinubu, and the counterfeit and its story suited their worldview of tossing aside every established standard of ethical journalism and professionalism.
“Since 2003, when Asiwaju Tinubu was chosen as the presidential standard bearer by the ruling APC, this disgraceful course has also been followed. Asiwaju Tinubu “stands rock solid and invincible, and those who chose this damned route of notoriety lost their gamble,” the statement continued.
The APC campaign committee emphasized that its candidate has often stated that he will focus his campaign on problems that directly impact Nigerians’ lives and how to deliver practical, long-lasting solutions that will raise the standard of living for all.
His publication of an 80-page manifesto titled Action Plan for a Better Nigeria, which he has been marketing to key sectoral organizations in the nation, serves as evidence of his resolve.
“We had thought that anyone running for president of our nation at this time would naturally support this noble and higher purpose.
It is evident that the opposition parties and producers of false information have additional unfavorable viewpoints. They aim to turn this election cycle into an opportunity for more smear campaigns.
The campaign organization is prepared to confront and combat any libellous or defamatory publications against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This is despite the fact that we want to remain above the fray and stick to our commitment to uplift our people and restore their faith and confidence in the immense goodness and greatness of our nation.
“We will no longer stand by while the current irresponsibility and complete contempt for professional judgment go unchecked.
“We also urge the police to look into the dissemination of the falsified INEC statement and bring those responsible to justice.”
Tinubu is attempting to escape criticism on his $460,000 ATIKU/OKOWA CAMPAIGN.
In response, Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman for the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization, urged the APC presidential candidate to come clean about his involvement in the alleged forfeiture of $460,000 related to illicit drugs to authorities in the United States rather than attempting to deflect attention.
In a phone interview with Vanguard, Ologbondiyan claimed that the APC Presidential campaign’s allegations that the PDP Presidential campaign and its Labour Party counterpart were responsible for a phony INEC press release indicting Tinubu were a distraction tactic used by the APC, which was adamant about diverting attention away from the real problem.
“We demand that Tinubu should come out publicly and justify his claimed connection to the staggering amount of $460,000 forfeited to the United States instead of hiding behind a finger and dispatching his media assistants to criticize other Nigerians,” he said.
Our campaign is adamant that Asiwaju Tinubu should clear his name of any wrongdoing after being linked to illegal finances by a court in the United States rather than looking for scapegoats and casting fingers at others when the majority of the evidence is pointing in his favor.
Is it not insane that Asiwaju Tinubu is enabling his aides, who were not the primary witnesses in the crime, to make threats and defamatory statements rather than directly informing Nigerians of the truth about the forfeiture judgment?
This explains why Asiwaju Tinubu is struggling to dismiss the matter as ‘a rumor,’ while the campaign is singing conflicting songs on taxes. This is really ridiculous!
Our campaign wants Asiwaju Tinubu to understand that Nigerians are still waiting for him to handle the extremely serious matter of his suspected connection to drugs, for which a forfeiture order was imposed on him.
LP advises Tinubu to look within APC for solutions to his issues.
For its part, the LP Presidential campaign urged the APC to search inside its ranks for individuals allegedly behind the forged INEC letterhead used to send a false press release.
The opposition party described it as disheartening that a party whose candidate has a history of fabricating papers would have the audacity to accuse innocent individuals of doing the same in a phone conversation with Vanguard.
Dr. Yunusa Tanko, the chief spokeswoman for the Labour Party’s presidential campaign, advised the APC campaign not to use unfounded accusations to entangle the LP in their floundering campaign.
It is known that Mr. Peter Obi, our presidential candidate, has never lied about his age, his academic accomplishments, or had a need to dispute his place of birth or his parents.
It is incomprehensible that we would be accused of working with another opposition party to fabricate papers in a presidential race whose candidate has refused to be transparent about his past. We advise the APC to address challenges head-on and to quit deflecting attention.
Shettima insults Obi and violates peace agreement – LP CAMPAIGN
The LP Presidential Campaign also voiced dissatisfaction at what it called Senator Kassim Shettima, the APC’s vice presidential candidate, “many unguarded attacks and insulting statements hurled on Obi and other candidates.”
Dr. Doyin Okupe, the director general of the Labour Party’s presidential campaign, expressed the party’s disappointment in a statement yesterday in Abuja.
The National Peace Accord, overseen by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Chairman of the National Peace Committee, represents the genuine Code of Conduct for all corporate and individual direct participants in the current electoral process, the speaker declared. “Our political parties are all signatories to the National Peace Accord.
“It is specifically specified in the Peace Accord signed in Abuja that candidates shall refrain from using derogatory or disrespectful words throughout the campaign.
“Therefore, it is quite regrettable and tragic, but not altogether unexpected. that the APC Vice Presidential Candidate, in particular, has repeatedly played the court jester in flagrant disregard for the provisions and principles of this agreement by persistently, irresponsibly, and recklessly making all kinds of derogatory comments that are completely at odds with good manners and decorum.
“We have no doubts at all that, despite the fact that he has repeatedly abused the privilege of public discourse by disparaging Peter Obi and other candidates, he will never be able to match his political superiors in terms of integrity, character, or status, let alone their vision, policies, or level of public support.
“We here emphasize that strictly in line with the directives of our presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to keep the campaign engagement and rhetoric, civil and issue-based, we have resisted his sustained diatribe, and could not bring ourselves to his dirt level, to respond to him in like manner,” continued Okupe.
“However, it must be placed on record that this does not represent a lack of capacity to publicly take him on, especially as he personally carries a huge burden of a sordid and reprehensible past.
“At this juncture, the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Organisation will like to advise the APC to rein in and restrain its Vice Presidential candidate from further uncouth and unguarded language against our candidate and all other candidates in this race.
“It can be understood that he is still basking in the euphoria of having been nominated, to the exalted position of the Vice Presidential candidate of a party, which ordinarily could never have occurred, in an environment of strict adherence to best practices and high moral and character values, where due attention is paid to pedigree, personal records and known antecedents.
Okupe noted that in saner climes, a presidential election is a serious process of responsibility to the people, and should not become a putreous arena for display of bad manners and verbal hooliganism.
“We will like to remind Shettima that those who make their living in glass houses should not have stone throwing as their hobby.”
Peter Obi’s statistics is unsettling the opposition, says Media Office
Indeed, the Obi-Datti Media office, said the dimensions Obi brought into the nation’s electioneering this time around has successfully thrown many pundits and politicians off balance because they were never prepared for it.
It said in a statement: Obi’s issue driven campaigns even though the correct and necessary thing to do in an ideal democratic setting has remained alien and unfamiliar to Nigeria’s political environment, hence the apparent disgruntlement from his competitors and the opposition political parties.
“The use of statistics and figures by Obi to buttress his points to Nigerians has helped to drive home his points, almost the same way the use of statistics and illustrations are handy in explanation of things.
“But notwithstanding all the potentials that abound in the use of statistics, the Labour Party flag bearer, Mr. Peter Obi, has remained under attack for adequately using statistics to explain the challenges of the country and the way to go about it using inferences from other countries that passed similar roads and have already scaled through.
The Obi-Datti Media office said it tries to ask, why Nigeria is averse to any progressive ideas, especially in political circles despite not making any meaningful progress in the old ways.
“At a recent Arise Television Town Hall meeting for presidential candidates, even the organizers mobilised themselves in the name of fact-checking to ambush and embarrass Obi on his statistics but couldn’t, instead they apologized to him for their own misinformation.”
Catholic Bishops seek issues-based campaigns
Worried by the dangerous bent campaign of calumny is assuming, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, yesterday urged political parties and their candidates to focus on issue-based campaigns, urging that campaigns should be devoid of bitterness and unhealthy rivalry.
The Bishops also urged the government to provide the enabling environment for citizens to exercise their franchise devoid of violence, intimidation, vote buying and vote selling during the 2023 general elections.
These were contained in a message by the Bishops at the end of the 3rd National Pastoral Congress of the Catholic Church in the country with the theme: ‘Towards a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission’.
The message was co-signed by the CBCN President, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji (Archbishop of Owerri) and the Secretary, Most Rev. Donatus Aihmiosion Ogun (Bishop of Uromi),
“Political candidates for the election should avail citizens of their electoral manifestoes including strategies for achieving set goals and objectives.
“The practice of promising the electorate lofty objectives to be pursued by political office holders that look good on paper but only to be jettisoned after such candidates win election has become the common experience of many Nigerians,” they said.
The message recalled that at their last meeting in Orlu, Imo State in September 2022, they promised that at the end of third Pastoral Congress, a prayer will be composed for free, fair, credible and peaceful elections in our country in 2023.
“The bishops have composed the said prayers, which should be said in all dioceses, parishes and families from now to the time of elections,” they said.
Economy in bad shape
The Catholic Bishops lamented that despite several efforts by the government, the economy had not been in good shape. Consequently, they argued that redesigning the Naira alone cannot provide the needed reprieve in the economy and confront the problems of corruption and terrorism-financing.
The clerics advised the Federal Government to exploit every opportunity, build strong institutional frameworks and laws such as an effective policing system, tracking and timely prosecution of corrupt persons, amongst others.
“Citizens are not seeing much improvement in their daily lives but a decline in their purchasing power. The costs of staple food like rice, yam and garri have skyrocketed. Power supply is still epileptic.
“Fuel is sold at far above the official pump rates in many parts of the country. This should not be happening in a country that is the 6th largest producer of crude oil in the world. Government should devise a strategy that makes fuel and other petroleum products available, accessible and affordable.“”The new government policy of Naira redesign, aimed at curbing inflation and fighting corruption and terrorism, is a lofty idea.
“In any case, Naira redesign alone cannot provide the needed reprieve in the economy and confront the hydra-headed problems of corruption and terrorism.
“A redesigned naira must necessarily be accompanied by strong institutional frameworks and laws such as an effective policing system, tracking and timely prosecution of corrupt persons and strengthening the security agencies to properly police Nigeria’s borders to prevent the influx of armed bandits from other countries.”
Hate speech, greatest danger to unity, stability of Nigeria – ACF
Also cautioning against hate speech, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, in a statement titled “Hate speech and violence will be our death” by its Secretary General, Murtala Aliyu, said: “Although Nigeria is already facing severe life threatening challenges arising from lack of security and the growing economic crises, it would seem that there are many desperate political leaders and other self-appointed community champions that will not hesitate to add more fuel to the fire.
“As shamefully, most are driven by blind ambition or plain hatred. No one can fail to notice the alarming rise of tension and lawlessness as the election campaigns and contests gather pace. There are reports that some politicians are engaging thugs and violent persons to attack their opponents, spreading terror and fear everywhere.
“Of much greater concern, however, is the resort to hate speech, insults and threats of violence being issued by the political leaders including state governors. They seem to be pathetically unaware that the distance between hate speeches and violence, even genocide, is a very short one.
“Hate speech, for whatever reason, covers many forms of expression but all incite, promote or justify hatred, violence and discrimination against an individual or group of people. It poses grave danger to the unity and stability of a democratic society, protection of human rights and the rule of law. Unchecked, it can lead to acts of violence and conflict on a grand scale.”
Ortom’s apology over anti-Fulani’s comments, a relief
“We have to say that we were relieved to hear of Governor Samuel Ortom’s apology following his outburst in this regard. The Governor’s hostile comments on Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP, dominated discussion in the country for much of last week. The Electoral Act as amended and for good reasons, prescribed heavy punishment for infractions such as this.
“The fact that hate speeches and acts of violence and aggression are rife in this campaign season can only mean that the laws are not being enforced. This hasn’t come as a surprise considering the fact that the National Assembly has so far chosen not to enact the law that will see to the birth of the Electoral Offences Tribunal.
“In the meantime, INEC has a responsibility to act and enforce the Electoral Act as amended. It should impose the harshest punishment possible on politicians, who think achieving their personal ambitions is more important than national peace and harmony. Such persons are unfit for any form of leadership at any level.
“The Arewa Consultative Forum, therefore called on leaders at whatever level to exercise restraint in their utterances to enable Nigerians have a peaceful election and transition to the next government in 2023.”
