With the mudslinging between the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his rival in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, failing to abate, civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria have condemned personal attacks deployed by some presidential candidates ahead of next month’s general elections.
According to the CSOs, candidates who have nothing to offer to the people have now embarked on personal attacks, thereby heating up the polity.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP, the CSOs said some of the presidential candidates have become nuisance and now inducing voters with money rather than putting forward their development agenda.
It was gathered that APC’s Tinubu had taken PDP’s Atiku to court over alleged corruption. Conversely, Atiku has also taken Tinubu to court over drug-related matters.
These, amongst other issues, have created tension ahead of the elections as the candidates, instead of championing their development agenda, have embarked on throwing mud at their opponents and resorting to voter inducement.
But CSOs have expressed concern, calling on the candidates to return to issues based politics.
The CSOs that spoke to LEADERSHIP yesterday are: Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Transparency International (TI) and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).
Speaking through their leader, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, the CSOs said they are concerned at the dimension the campaigns have taken, which is heating up the polity.
“We are concerned with the turn of events. The presidential candidates have turned to using personal attacks rather than campaigning on issues.This has been the old tactics politicians who have nothing to offer have been using rather than facing the real issues.
“They don’t want to make commitments to the Nigerian people so that they can be held accountable for their commitment. They have embarked on personal attacks rather than talking on issues,” the CSOs said.
According to the CSOs, the 2023 general elections appear to have been immotionalised, adding that drastic efforts must be made to ensure the country is not thrown into crises.
“The 2023 election appears to be immotionalised. Attacks and financial inducement is the order of the day. Many people who are supposed to distinguish between black and white, with poverty, poor infrastructure, they can’t discern the credible candidate to vote for.
“The election campaign is now not issue based. They are just using money or violence intimidation to prevent people from making informed decisions. This is really a setback and the CSOs we represent frown at this tension the politicians have created.
“They are dodging from issues-based politics so that no one will hold them responsible for the promise they made if they get there. What they are doing now is personal attacks which are preventing the voters from asking them questions on what they will do.
“Apparently, most of the political parties are also supporting what their candidates are doing. You hardly hear them condemning such. So, you can’t excuse them from the kind of campaign their candidates are doing,” the CSOs added.
Meanwhile, a former attorney- general of Kwara State, Barrister Salman Jawondo (SAN), said the cases instituted by the presidential candidates of the PDP and APC, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu, respectively, seeking each other’s disqualification, cannot lead to the disqualification of any of them.
Jawondo, who spoke with LEADERSHIP in Ilorin, said the cases cannot be decided before the coming presidential election.
He said, “The action and counter-action, each has its root in political permutations. Each action has commission of crimes as its root, and as such each carries the burden to prove his allegation(s) against his opponent beyond reasonable doubt.
“The cases would definitely survive the elections because they cannot be decided before the conduct of the elections. Apart from their political propaganda value, the cases cannot lead to the disqualification of any of the candidates involved, at least for purposes of the presidential election of next month. I foresee the cases dying a natural death after the elections. It is a case of “if you Tarka me , I Dabo you”.
LEADERSHIP reports that the above reference relates to two politicians from the middle belt in the second republic, Joseph Tarka and Godwin Dabo, who were stiff political rivals.
Some lawyers who spoke to LEADERSHIP said since the two political parties have approached the court to look into their respective allegations, the court should be allowed to look into the matters.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Abdul Balogun, said it is a good thing that allegations are flying here and there.
“I trust the court to do justice in this matter since parties are before the court. If I may say, this kind of development is good for the country and it will make Nigerians determine the kind of leaders they want for the country.
“I don’t expect that these cases would have been determined before the next elections and I believe even if it’s not decided, it cannot be overtaken by event because whoever is elected next month still has up to May 29 to assume office and immunity cannot cover him until then,” he said.
On his part,, Kayode Enitan, SAN, said the back and forth should have very dire implications, but unfortunately, it would not because it will be rolled over in the ongoing politicking.
The senior lawyer also noted that none of the law enforcement agencies will do anything that can be interpreted or misinterpreted as being partisan in favour of or against either of these two candidates.
Enitan stated, “If the agencies take any steps on the allegations, it would be seen as having a heavy potential to unduly heat up the polity at this time. A different view may, however, be held by law enforcement agencies after the elections.”
Another lawyer, Barrister Eze Obiekwe, described the allegations from both camps against each other’s candidates as a distraction.
He called on the two parties and their supporters to face the real issues and tell Nigerians how they intend to make life a little bit comfortable for them.
“As far as I’m concerned, all these allegations are distractions and I don’t expect Nigerians to take them seriously.I see all these allegations as diversionary from the real issue and problems confronting the nation. We can continue like this; Nigerians are tired of all these dramas”, he said.
Barrister Abdullahi Bello Abu, another lawyer, said Nigerians should not be distracted; rather, they should hold the candidates responsible for their promises after elections if they fail to fulfill their campaign promises.
Atiku, PDP Cloning Media Houses’ Sites To Spread Fake News, Tinubu Alleges
Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has alleged that the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have perfected plans to spread fake news in the Hausa language against him.
This, he said, they have done by cloning websites and social media accounts of popular newspapers and blogs.
He accused the PDP of deploying its social media hirelings, who have started publishing their nefarious contents by spoofing and using social media accounts of popular newspapers and blogs to disseminate fake news with the sole aim of hoodwinking gullible Nigerians.
In a statement issued yesterday by the director, Media and Publicity, of the APC presidential campaign council, Bayo Onanuga, the APC standard bearer noted that the PDP had also recruited many social media actors to carry out its campaign of calumny by proxy.
Onanuga said, “We want to alert Nigerians to the sinister moves and orchestrated plans of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to unleash a wave of fake news, especially in the Hausa language, to malign, defame and delegitimise Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC before Nigerians.
“This scurrilous campaign by the PDP has already been perfected with a dedicated team working day and night from the PDP national headquarters at Wadata House, Abuja.
“Many parody social media accounts such as ‘Vanguard Hausa’, and ‘Daily Trust Hausa’ have been created and are also being used to circulate fake news on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and other digital platforms.
“On Facebook, we found that Daily Trust Hausa was first created as K.R.K Media on 9th August 2021. It changed its name to Daily Trust Media on 7 December 2022 and has a fake website address, daily.com.
“A second Daily Trust Hausa Facebook account was created 13th August 2022 as Facos News Hausa, with the objective of publishing posts on Musicians. It changed its name on 29 December 2022, just 22 days after its other clone. Vanguard Hausa was created on 21 December 2021. Its website failed to open.
“All these parody Facebook accounts were used by the PDP on Saturday to publish malicious fake news that trucks carrying old Naira notes belonging to Tinubu were arrested in Lagos.
“For clarification, Daily Trust does publish a Hausa paper called Aminiya, which is also on Facebook with the same name. We are not aware that Vanguard has a similar publication.
“We implore the two newspapers, Daily Trust and Vanguard, to inform Facebook and Meta that they have been cloned by fake news merchants, for political offensives, masterminded by PDP”.
Tinubu further alleged that the evil plot is targeted at manipulating Nigerians, especially Northerners, to view him in a bad light, as the only way for PDP and Atiku to perfect their chances at the forthcoming presidential election.
“PDP and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, know they can’t win this coming election. They also know Nigerians will never vote for PDP to take over the leadership of Nigeria after inflicting 16 years of misery on Nigerians.
“Because Atiku’s presidential campaign is heading to a crash, PDP futilely hopes to avoid the impending electoral defeat by sponsoring a coordinated fake news assault on APC, our presidential candidate and even against the government.
“We use this medium to urge Nigerians and most especially our compatriots in Northern Nigeria not to allow themselves to be deceived,” he said.
