When I laid my hand on Boy George, a special magazine produced by unknown Lagos politician(s), in 2003, I was not sure of what I was reading for many days. Then, my understanding and how to detect propaganda as a student of Mass Communication were limited. For days, I wondered how people or organisations could so be coordinated in producing a magazine primarily to construct and deconstruct someone’s personality and previous activities for gaining a large share of public mind ahead an election.
The magazine was packaged to the extent that uncritical minds would absolutely believe every word, image and illustration employed to demarketing Chief Olabode George of the People’s Democratic Party.
Several years later, with improved knowledge and skills on how to detect polluted messages associated with politics and governance, I realise that propaganda and politicians as well as their supporters are inseparable. Ordinarily, if children were asked in an English essay writing to talk about the boy George, they would have used different flowery words, images and illustrations to portray personality and activities of the man who was severely battered in the magazine.
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While I a magazine with over 50 pages was produced to manipulate people’s perception about Chief Bode George 20 years ago, more advanced tools are now being used for creating and disseminating similar messages about the three leading presidential candidates. Manufacturers of propaganda messages about Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr Peter Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubaker are more succeeding their trade because of improved Internet penetration and high social networking users, which were not in existence in 2003.
A typical submission from propagandists is like Nigeria is a nation with a rich history, deep culture, and a bright future. However, the nation faces many challenges, from poor infrastructure to corruption. Now, the nation is faced with the challenge of choosing its next leader, and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi have stepped forward to take on the challenge. Unfortunately, Tinubu is not the right choice for Nigeria. Unfortunately, Atiku is not the right choice for Nigeria. Unfortunately, Obi is not the right choice for Nigeria.
They are puppets for the elite, with their policies closely aligned with the current government. They have proposed policies that will benefit the wealthy and powerful, but will do little to improve the lives of the average Nigerian. Their economic policies are aimed at benefiting the rich and powerful, while neglecting the needs of the poor and middle class. They all have a history of supporting policies that are detrimental to Nigeria’s environment. They all have a history of cronyism and nepotism.
From September 28, 2022 that campaign activities have started till February 13, 2023, the candidates’ competencies and capabilities to govern Nigeria have been discussed using these discourses. For the people who have little understanding of how politicians, political parties and their supporters use propaganda as a tool during campaign, it would be difficult to make informed decision on February 25th, 2023. In the words of Garry Kasparov, “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”