A head of 2015 general election, members of the opposition may have perfected a plot to launch integrated and intensive media attacks on influential aides of President Goodluck Jonathan.
President of the National Vanguard for the Protection of Nigeria’s Integrity (NAVPONI), El- Habib Danfulani, who disclosed this to Daily Sun said the move was designed to make the present government unpopular ahead of the general election.
The targeted ministers, according to El- Habib, include Diezani Alison-Madueke, Petroleum Resources; Akinwumi Adesina, Agriculture; Idris Umar, Transport and Labaran Maku of Information.
Other aides include Senior Special Adviser on Media Reuben Abati and Ahmed Gulak, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters.
According to El- Habib, the opposition is targeting the ministers because they consider them as being behind the successes being recorded in the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and therefore, should not be allowed to carry on the way they are presently performing.
He said the media war was planned to commence from the beginning of 2014 and aimed at reducing the influence of the targeted ministers and aides of the president as a political strategy to cause distraction to the government.
He alleged that some opposition elements have concluded arrangements to use a section of the media to tarnish the image of some ministers and other aides of the president with a view to put them in bad light before the public as corrupt and ineffective.
“I want to tell you authoritatively, that members of my organisation have discovered that some politicians from opposition side, have concluded arrangement with a section of the media to wage integrated media war against the government of President Goodluck Jonathan beginning from as early as January next year. You know that 2014 is election year in Nigeria. The idea is to as much as possible tarnish the image of the administration before Nigerians so that the government would become unpopular with the people,” one of our sources said.
According to him, different forms of allegations would be put out in the media against the selected Ministers and aides ranging from embezzlement of billions of Naira, money laundering, misappropriation, contract splitting among others.
This, he said, is to divert government attention from governance, tarnish the image of the Ministers as well as put pressure on Jonathan to remove them from his cabinet.
He stated: “You know that 2014 is crucial to politicians in the country. The battle of what you call 2015 is beginning from January next year. The opposition is not happy with these ministers and aides because they believe that their successes are the reason for Jonathan’s confidence to contest the 2015 election. The opposition is desperate to take over power from the President. That is one of their strategies to divert government’s focus from governance so that the government would be busy trying to defend its officers instead of executing designated projects.
“If you can remember, one of the campaign issues the opposition raised against President Jonathan in 2011 was the acute scarcity of petroleum products in the country that time and how Nigerians suffered for hours at petrol stations to buy petrol and kerosene. Jonathan defended himself that time by saying that he was not the president when the scarcity started. Now, Jonathan’s government has fixed the petrol scarcity issue and opposition are not happy because they believe the President would make it a campaign issue. That is one of the grouses they have against the Minister for Petroleum Resources.”
He said that the Minister of Information has been a thorn in the flesh of the opposition who see him as very eloquent and proactive and therefore, a stumbling block to their several plots in the past to embarrass the government.
Maku’s exit from the cabinet, according to El-Habib, would create the loophole the opposition is looking for to strike mortal blow on the administration.
He said: “From our findings, they want to see how the on-going work on railways can be stopped because they fear that if more railway routes are rehabilitated and put into effective use like the Lagos-Ilorin and some others that have resumed operation, Jonathan would have more achievements to tell Nigerians during campaigns, same with the Minister for Agriculture,” he said, adding that the social media would be used immensely in the execution of the media plot.
“The social media has been identified as the quickest and most potent means of reaching the people in the present dispensation, especially young people. So, they are going to make use of popular blogs in this project.”
Source: Sun
