It has become clear to some discerning minds that the fate of our country and that of the 2023 elections is going to depend so much on what our so-called pundits, patriots, cerebral minds, influencers, political factors, spokespersons of political parties and analysts who are objectively unobjective and all those in allied professions will make of them. It is not going to depend much on what the real candidates say, mean or do by themselves in pursuit of their ambitions. I say so because indication has already been given and so much more is going to depend on the interpretation they give to utterances and actions of the contending and contesting politicians.
My pessimism is based on the fact that those people have become our political magistrates. They rule on political issues and tell us who is wrong and who is right. They are not in any mood to debate issues with us. They just pass a verdict and tell us what we should think about the candidates on parade.
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When, some months back, Kashim Shettima, the APC vice-presidential candidate, wore a certain dress to honour an invitation to the Nigerian Bar Association annual conference, some confederates of the above -mentioned confederacy raised not a small storm about the dress he wore, which had nothing whatsoever to do about his person, his political philosophy and, more importantly, what he had to say at that conference. In fact, at that same event, he delivered a speech that some of his critics even labelled as brilliant. If those know-it-all persons had said Shettima was out to make a fashion statement, that is how all of us would have agreed was what he did. If truth be told, the storm about Shettima’s dress was a partisan attack to de-market him.
A few months later these same members of that constituency are at it again and have descended on the same target- Kashim Shettima. Reuben Abati, one of the prominent anchors of Arise TV’s Morning Show, the other day ‘ruled’ that Shettima’s remarks about Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, always turning out in two suits is an example of false modesty, is in bad taste and that he turns to sounds off key on issues that can divide the nation.
No! Kashim is on key and on cue.
It is Abati who is off key and off cue. For heaven’s sake this is an election year and the electioneering campaign is on. This is the time when politicians can throw jabs at each other in order to provoke one another to say or do something that will reveal the true quality of their opponents’ minds. This type of political ‘yabis’ is not what will set the nation on fire. No sir, it is what will enliven the campaign and put certain smiles on the faces of some Nigerians.
As far as we ordinary Nigerians can see, Kashim Shettima and his likes are not the danger to our democracy that persons like Reuben Abati want us to believe. No. Pundits of the likes of Reuben Abati, are democratic dictators we must watch out for, who see conspiracies everywhere when there is none visible to ordinary democrats. Is there no room for a little jab at opponents, a little deliberate verbal punch at him to make him look a little odious in an effort to promote ourselves and de-market the opponent?
Throwing jabs at opponents in order to make them look not so good in the eyes of voters in order to promote your own cause or the cause of any other candidates or interest you have and want to defend, is a legitimate weapon of political warfare.
It is legitimate for Shettima or anyone else to raise issues about Obi’s ‘’two suits’’. There are many who want their candidate to campaign against waste in any form but who also think that such a candidate should, at the same time, try to project wealth. Some yearn for sartorial elegance in their leaders and expect them to project wealth and well-being and not to show poverty in two suits!
The other day, Rufai, another Anchor on AriseTV Morning Show, was also accusing Shetima of ethnic slur when he called Peter Obi as “Grengory” of the now rested TV show “The New Masquerade”. There was nothing denigrating the Igbos in that innocuous statement as Rufai would want his viewers to believe. It’s a mere comment to enliven the discussion but Rufai had to extrapolate it in order to cast Shetima in bad light. But the other day when Shetima described another Igbo man and the CEO of Air Peace, Allen Oyeama, as a patriot and deserves the highest National Honour, AriseTV anchors were silent.
To the best of our knowledge, Shettima has not promoted violence; nor has he instigated anyone to perpetuate violence. The things that the peace accord which the candidates signed had in mind are recruiting and arming thugs to prosecute the ‘’war of politics’’, mischievously playing on our fault lines of religion, region and tribe in order to bring about violence. Shettima did not go anywhere near these sins.
Joseph Y. Chibok wrote from Abuja
