by Agha Egwu
Online advocates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) amuse me when they engage in debates with All Progressives Congress (APC) online activists, also known as APC e-rats. This letter is addressed to them.
Your incredulity at the lies fascinate me. You think it’s a terrible thing and express shock.
Now I was in the APC, and probably still in the APC, as I have not formally withdrawn from the party. The reason being, I can’t even make the effort to withdraw formally. I can’t be bothered with political parties anymore. All are thieves and liars. None have Nigeria’s real interest at heart.
But, former President Goodluck Jonathan and his team were different. They were not true PDP. They were great achievers. But, that is not the subject of my piece.
You guys should understand that during the campaigns, APC propagandists were trained. I attended some training and wish I had stayed the course but once I discovered the deep tribalism and sectarianism in APC, I had to get out. PDP was bad, but they were nationalist. APC is much worse than PDP and on top of it they are largely made up of Northern hegemonists and Yoruba supremacists.
The APC hired an American company who trained them in propaganda and subliminal mass mind control. They focused on only two things – the negative demonisation of Jonathan and the meaningless CHANGE that allowed anybody to think “Change” was whatever they thought.
The APC carefully refused to define what it meant by “CHANGE”, allowing the Yorubas to believe their own concept of change which is social progress. The Northern Muslims thought it meant the advancement of their religion. Both sides never understood they fought for different concepts under the banner of CHANGE.
Everything was done to prove that Jonathan was worthless including getting America to stop selling us arms to fight Boko Haram in a fierce war and buying our oil. Various scenarios of proving Jonathan “clueless” were devised despite the knowledge of Jonathan achievement. In fact the more Jonathan achieved the more they attacked. They used the word “corruption” to demonise Jonathan even though Jonathan was the least corrupt leader Nigeria EVER had.
The APC knew the truth, so they had to clearly analyse the truth in order to devise a lie that will destroy the
truth.
Propaganda in APC is a serious and well understood art. The Goebell’s Nazi prescription – tell a lie, tell it big, tell it repeatedly and the people will believe it. They drive the corruption mantra; they quote billions but don’t really challenge the truth in court. They are more interested in the lie and going to court will expire the truth.
That is why no one has been convicted in Buhari’s anti-corruption fight. It is a deliberate policy.
They also don’t care whether intellectuals in the social media believe them. They only care that the masses believe them and you who discover the truth have no access to tell the masses the truth. The masses cannot deal with the truth. They deal with simple messages that stick and that’s what they will believe. Complex debunking of lies with proof is irrelevant.
You have to have sat at an APC media strategy sessions or in an APC chatrooms to understand the relish with which they manufacture lies and how they practice arguments to dismantle the statements of the opposition. That is now their default operational mode. Anything goes wrong… they just manufacture a lie. It worked well to win election so they are still using it to govern.
Obama and Axelrod used this system of immediate response effectively for Obama to win. However, they tried to speak the truth because in America outright propaganda of lies won’t work.
In Nigeria, APC adopted that method in a decadent style. For them, there are no rules and no holds barred so they went all the way. They sank into extreme lies.
APC online activist leaders like Mark Olusegun and all his ilk like Soni Akoji all probably know the truth but their job is to destroy the truth and promote the propaganda. They knew about Jonathan universities, trains, airports, and so many other achievements, but their job was to destroy.
Arguing with APC online goons is a waste of time. They are rehearsed to repeat lies repeatedly and meander round the truth. It’s better to just dismiss them as liars and focus on your truth.
They already know they are liars. They are trained to tell and repeat big lies till you believe it.
Agha Egwu is a social media political activist.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
