President Goodluck Jonathan’s Not Aware of 2015 re-election Poster
News/Africa
NIGERIA
The glossy posters with
Jonathan’s portrait boldly inscribed came with a bang. It was loaded with
variegated and serious messages even though it was not signed as a complete
advertisement with an identified sponsor.
First, it warned those angling
for the prized post to steer clear of Aso Rock, the nation’s power base,
that ‘there is no vacancy’ there, apparently trying to ruffle the
opposition, which is battling to put it acts together with a view to giving
Jonathan a good fight in the next presidential election.
The campaign material
also made a spirited attempt to eulogise Jonathan for ‘doing well’ as a
president and called for continuous support for him in the 2015. “One good turn
deserves another,” the sponsors of the dubious posters, wrote.
By daybreak on New Year, the
posters were already catching fire like a cracker. From the first gate of the
Presidential Villa to Yakubu Gowon Crescent and AYA and the surroundings of
ECOWAS in Asokoro District, men, women and youths were scrambling for space to
catch a glimpse of the posters displayed on any available space.
The Presidency rose at once
to disown not only the placement of the message but its timing. Like a well
rehearsed orchestra, the President’s men – Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, the Political
Adviser to the President and Dr. Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser on Media and
Publicity – distanced themselves from what they see as a repugnant message
designed to distract their boss from going ahead with his ‘transformation
agenda’. Gulak, who spoke from his village in far away Adamawa, was emphatic
that the President had not mandated the sponsors to put out the controversial
communication material.
“I am sure it is the work of misguided elements who are out to
cause confusion among Nigerians,” Gulak told Sunday Vanguard in a telephone
interview on Tuesday night.
“Those pasting the posters are
trying to express their own views. The President had stated that he would talk
about the Presidential election from 2014 and those doing these things do not
have the consent of the president.
The President has not launched
any campaign; he believes those doing that are playing games. There is no
reason for the president to engage in any form of scaremongering, having said
that by 2014 he would make his position on the matter known. Nigerians should
wait till them,” the spokesman declared.
The quality of the posters
and the message in them, lend credence to the fact that they were not done by
poor and illiterate men in search of what to do in order to earn their meal.
The packaging shows clearly that the message was a product of rigorous thinking
and produced by sound minds to meet the taste of a sophisticated audience.
But if the Presidency insists it has no idea of who sponsored the
message, Nigerians may want to know how soon an enquiry would be carried out to
determine whose money was spent to produce and paste the materials and by who
and why?
source:vanguard
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