MUYIWA AKINTUNDE reminds hired writers and supporters of the true character of the aspirant we die for in Nigerian politics
Muyiwa
Mr Akintunde, a media and communications strategist, is Vice President of the Public Relations Consultants of Nigeria and Chief Operating Officer of Leap Communications.
Politics (or rather, poliTRICKS) is in the air. It’s more pervasive than harmattan. Who can’t feel it must immediately approach an ENT surgeon for help.
So camps have been formed. Many more are about to be birthed.
In winning the hearts of the people, facts are the first victims. Who cares about checking if that image or literature, contains absolute lies and concoctions? As long as it demarkets the opponent or raises the approval rating of your guy by a few notches.
The recipients of the messages don’t bother to put the content through any form of grill anyway. They vuvuzela it through their phones, the social media and other forms of communication. When you query the authenticity of their posts, they make feeble explanation and perhaps tell you: “sitdown there”!
Right now, the political parties (major, minor and emerging) don’t have candidates for the 2023 elections yet. So what we have at the moment are aspirations (as we call them in our system).
But the zealots backing the aspirants, who, by the way, are all in the same political party, deploy every opportunity not to push the reasons why their man or woman is the most suitable for the job. They rather go under the skin of the other aspirants – within the same political party – ferreting even non-existing information.
Unknown to most of those engaged in this act, they are fuelling the opposition to the candidate of their party, who will emerge from among the aspirants at some point in time.
The aspirant we die for
While they are at it, these set of fanatics forget that poliTRICKians, particularly of the Nigerian hues, have no permanent friends or enemies. That is why they can have breakfast waving the broom, lunch under the cover of the umbrella, and dinner as a member of a fringe political party, all in the same day. What matters is their interest at every hour.
Those who engage in breaking bridges and relationships that had existed for decades on the alter of supportership for a political aspirant should please not relent. My admonition: that aspirant you want to die for will throw you under the bus when you least expect. Believe it or not.
The aspirant we die for in Nigerian politics
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