By Colins Ikponmwonsa Osasere
Ahead of the September 21, governorship election in our beloved Edo State, the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) is now fully out in its elements – deceiving, misleading and even cajoling the people through their most dangerous weapons of peddling lies and propaganda. They are masters of the Art of Deception – calling black white and painting angels as devils.
Indeed, lies, deception and propaganda are all in APC’s DNA in very large percentages, traceable to Nazi politician, District Head of Berlin and World War II criminal, Paul Joseph Goebbels. As Head of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklarung und Propaganda, RMVP) also simply known as the Ministry of Propaganda, Goebbels used the press, literature, visual arts, film, theatre, music and radio to deceive the people to support the Nazi Party, a most pervasive evil political organization ever known in human history till date.
In Nigeria, the APC is the truest replica of that accursed Nazi political party in the then Germany. It has an uncanny way of presenting the worst to the people as the best through lies and propaganda. It has a way of telling the people that the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East in total contrast to natural order. And that the moon comes out during the day and not at night. Such is the wickedness of the party which claims to be a ‘Change Agent’. Ironically, the more things change, the worse Nigerians become since APC came to power in 2015.
In 2015, using lies and propaganda, threats of violence, kidnapping poor school girls in Chibok, they deceived Nigerians by labelling the President Goodluck Jonathan administration as “clueless”. They went ahead to present and foist a man that became the most clueless of all presidents on the country. Nigeria thus effectively began the journey downhill.
The APC has been in power since then. Nine years later, Nigeria has been plagued and experienced one thing it never experienced in all her first 60 years of independence from 1960 to 2020. Nigerians began running away from their God given and blessed country in droves. A phenomenon popularly known as Japa. Not even in the dark days of the 30 odd months of the Nigerian/Biafra Civil War, did Nigerians voluntarily run away from their country as it has been since the coming of APC to power in Nigeria. What never happened during war time, APC managed to introduce it into our lives in peace time, no thanks to APC’s anti-people, anti-poor, deceptive and ungodly policies and programmes.
Today, inflation is above 33 percent. What it means is that for every 100 Naira goods or items you buy, you lose 33 percent in value for your money. It has never been like this. On social media, the trending issue is the price difference between when PDP was in power in 2015 and what obtains today since APC came to power nine years ago. A paint rubber of Garri that used to be N400 is now N4,000. The same paint rubber of Rice that used to be N850 is now N5,200. A litre of Petrol that used to be N148 is now N850 and in some places N900. A litre of Kerosene that used to be N80 is now N1,450. A kilo of cooking gas that was N350 is now N1,450. The list is endless and cuts across every facet of life. Whatever the APC promises, and which it will present as a one touch solution to a million problems, through lies and propaganda, always turns out to be sad tales of pains, sorrow and tears.
In Edo State, we are still managing to breathe. Now they are at it again – peddling lies, deploying propaganda, deceiving the people, saying Governor Godwin Obaseki has not done anything, and that to that extend the best of the candidates in the election as it is now, Dr Asue Ighodalo should not be voted for because Obaseki is his godfather, which is another lie. They are at it again. All the reforms of Governor Obaseki, they claim and lie to the people are nothing. They lie to the people that Obaseki has taken the Oba of Benin to Court, when the court papers show clearly that is not the truth. Shall we allow the APC to continue to deceive us? Wetin we gain if we vote for APC in Edo State? Nothing! It will only be pain, tears and sorrow and blood as Lions and Tigers will return to the state.
(Watch out for Part 2)
Osasere, Environmental Crusader and Educationist, writes from Benin City, Edo State.