Paul Ibe, the media aide to Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, has criticized Bola Tinubu’s administration for relying on propaganda, disinformation and misinformation.
On August 1, a group of Nigerian youths launched a 10-day protest against bad governance and economic hardship in the country.
On Wednesday, during Day 7 of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest, a video circulated on social media showing Tinubu appealing to Nigerians to scale back the protests and give his administration more time.
However, a few hours later, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, posted on his X handle, clarifying that the video clip shared on the Tinubu’s handle was not new but from a broadcast made last year.
In a statement on Thursday, Atiku’s aide condemned the Nigerian government for allegedly adopting misinformation and disinformation as state policy, especially when these tactics are fuelling public outrage globally.
The statement read, “The scenario says a lot about the character of the Tinubu presidency, the proficiency of his media managers, and the attitude that the presidency accords the current #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest.
“For a start, what the Tinubu presidency did with the old video is to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians, with a view to distracting them. It’s a mannerism that is symptomatic of this presidency.
“This president and his media managers are a class act in propaganda.
“It is indeed shameless that at a time when misinformation and disinformation are being blamed for public outrage in many parts of the world, the Nigerian government is caught red-handed in the act, adopting it as a state policy.”
Atiku’s aide stated that the Nigerian people deserve a sincere apology from the presidency for allegedly steering them into a spiral of misinformation, disinformation, and resulting poor governance.
Ibe, Atiku’s aide, continued, “The flip-flopping episode that played out in the management of the President’s social media handle typifies the Tinubu administration’s policy flip-flops and trial-and-error policies. It is for this very reason that the country has been on a tight noose since the beginning of the administration.
“Obviously, the president’s media team knew they did a poor job with the Sunday broadcast by the president and, in trying to make amends, resorted to what they know best: deploying propaganda.
“This type of dysfunctional narrative is why Nigerians have lost confidence in the Tinubu administration. It is obvious even to the blind and the deaf that this government is deficient in credibility.”
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