–

THE jockey for the 2015 general elections is on. And politicians from all the major political parties are now in a frenzy, doing anything including spreading outright lies, misinformation and disinformation in their manoeuvre to outsmart one another. Never mind that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is yet to blow the whistle for campaigns to start. But the politicians are already making subtle bids to win the electorate to their side. This is why the polity is tensed up with the vituperations from political gladiators, especially those in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and the opposition groups, namely the Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN, and the Congress of Progressive Change, CPC and the All Nigeria Peoples Party. ANPP, which have fused into the All Progressive Congress, APC. In the mad desire to make a case to the electorate, the politicians do not show any decorum. Strategic arm-twisting and name-calling has become the order of the day. President Goodluck Jonathan seems to bear the brunt of it all. And for good reasons too.

He started the political scheming at the beginning of the year when his stealth campaigners adroitly mounted his presidential campaign posters on the eve of New Year in strategic places. After his opponents recovered from the shock of it all, they are now hell bent on stopping him from contesting the 2015 presidential election. Every conceivable spanner is being thrown in the works including threats of impeachment to halt Jonathan. The  stop-at-nothing attitude to discredit the Jonathan presidency include negatively portraying everything he does just to make sure nobody thinks he has ever gotten any thing right since he mounted the saddle two years ago.  For instance, after Jonathan was accused by the opposition of failing to show leadership to end the security problem in the country, he is now being vilified for having the guts to declare a state of emergency in Boko Haram-infested states. The war of words between the ruling party and the opposition groups worsened with the fiasco that followed the disputed election of the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum. One thing that has emerged in all the scheming is that the opposition seems to be blaming all their problems on the ruling party. The example of the struggle of who owns the APC acronym of the three disputants is still pending. In all the political schism, the Nigerian electorate is becoming increasingly disenchanted with the deafening grandstanding by the politicians. Hence, Realnews editorial board decided to help its readers to understand the dynamics at play so as to follow the political debate and jingoism as best as they can without being unduly ruffled or influenced by selfish politicians. In our cover story for this week entitled: Political Gladiators at War. Olu Ojewale, general editor, has done an elaborate analysis of the issues involved, the opposition offensive and the fight-back by both the presidency and PDP. Enjoy it.

Maureen Chigbo
Editor

Tel: +234 8052528603

— Jun. 17, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT