Tuesday 10 November 2015

BAYELSA ELECTION AND THE POLITICS OF PROPAGANDA



A NEW HOPE FOR BAYELSA STATE


BAYELSA ELECTION AND THE POLITICS OF PROPAGANDA

Propaganda is part and parcel of conscientisation. Talk, they say is cheap. It is even cheaper when it is issuing from an unstable and desperate mind. And in the infantile emission of such cheap talk, the consequences or costs are neither considered nor adjusted to be in tandem with public good. For such people, if they can hew out political capital from such
indiscretion, then it would have served their nefarious agenda. There are certain times when silence is golden, especially if you do not have an enviable track record of your own.

Since our outgoing governor was handed down the herculean job of steering the state in trust for the good people of Bayelsans by Bayelsans on the platform of a party that was erstwhile, the largest party in Nigeria, in a bid to save face from the monumental mistake Bayelsans made in the last gubernatorial election, has thrown all cautions to the wind, the incumbent and his predecessor who is also a guber candidate have been busy in the market lately, recruiting professional liers to their fold to sway the mind of the gullible few and create an illusory impression in the minds of Bayelsans that a government who has failed to deliver the dividends of democracy to his people for the past years is suddenly a darling and an indefatigable sympathetic leader who holds his people close, like a bear hug. The same governor who addressed the Swali market women once and said "whether you vote for me or not, I will rig the election," three (3) weeks to election, some of us are now beginning to understand the responsibilities and duties of a governor. He just sandfilled the swali market road of recent and he is massively organizing Town Hall meetings, giving N500,000.00 for every Town Hall he visits, the same man who said he will not share money in his administration.  Propaganda they say is the sister of politics, the weapon of mass seduction because to inform is to influence.

Lately I have been reading comments, from friends and others, saying one thing or the other about the candidate of the other parties, some of these unverified claims (lies) have been said over time and now, it seems they are true. “One person’s propaganda is another person’s truth”.  On the surface I agree, but a deeper look at propaganda exposes a huge difference between what is, and what they want us to believe. If one is not careful, propaganda can lead to defamation of character as enshrined in section 374 of our Criminal Code. But that singular provision shows a legal laxity to the restrain of what these professional liers churn out of their mouth daily to feed the public's ear with. If people are made to swear to an affidavit before publishing or saying something about someone via any medium, then we'll have a plethora of criminal case of perjury in our courts and so many people would have been convicted already.

Yesterday, after going on a sensitization exercise to Swali Market, I missed members of my crew (Moses Siloko Siasia volunteer's team). I took a Tricycle (keke) to Imgbi junction where a saw a plethora of my age bracket gathered at a newspaper stand, I decided it was a good opportunity to sell my Principal's candidature. The mindset exhibited by my generations reeks callowness and infantility and is reflective of what you hear in different circles of APC and PDP supporters in the state. You hardly hear any meaningful articulation of what their party’s candidate is bringing to the contest, other than the fact that he has been in government for as long as anybody can remember, coming from the APC, you hear things like "Dickson must not return, he has eight (8) wives already, he wants to marry all our sisters." The PDP is not different, they proffer reasons why we should elect Dickson such as "Restoration must continue, we are tired of Operation Famoutamgbe (OFT)" Ironically, this fact, which their supporters consider a strength, is what most people think is one of their weaknesses – they have been part of the problems of the past, which the present generation and Moses Siloko Siasia the leader of the positive change movement is trying to correct.

They may be demonstrating what they were taught, being loyal disciples of their various Principals. But the Bayelsa I know is not a place where election can be won with propaganda. Our people may not have a long history of political and intellectual sophistication, but we are certainly not so politically uninformed as not to differentiate between what we hear and what we see. These political Goliaths are like a loose cannons, a disaster always awaiting to happen with no clear cut plan for the state. In what was orchestrated by some who are afraid of the aspiration of the PDM gubernatorial candidate, there was a little drama at the Government House yesterday in Bayelsa state where some unknown elements donning the customized garbs of the PDM went to the out going governor to pledge their loyalty to him, alleging that the incoming governor, Moses Soliko Siasia had withdrawn from the governorship election which is just in the offine is the height of baseless propaganda, it further goes a long way at showcasing how idle and bereft of novelty ideas our incumbent can get at times. A governor has more business to pursue than drilling hole in another party's ship. Some of us feel sorry for these parties the way they are carrying on with their propagandas and badmouthing because Bayelsans are not brought up in that manner. We are brought up to be civil, polite, humble and show respect to others. Decorum and propriety are among those things we imbibe as well as the teaching of the importance of unity and mutual understanding, no wonder Moses Siasia has always emphasized that what brings us together is greater than what tears us apart.

Moses Siloko Siasia have come to offer us the REAL CHANGE, with a clear cut plan on how to liberate our dear state, Bayelsans should go all out for the alternative come December 5. The people are jaded already and we want to try something new.

Aluzu, Ebikebuna Augustine
New Media Coordinator for Moses Siloko Siasia Campaign Team.

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