Propaganda, Zoning and 2011 Presidency
The Zoning debate is getting very emotive. Emotion has always been the one of the tools of propaganda.
Propaganda thrives when there is conflict between the mind and the reality. Proponents of propaganda uses emotive argument to becloud reason over particular issues in dispute.
Garth Jowett and Victoria O’ Donnell in their book, “Propaganda and Persuasion,” provided a meaning of propaganda. To them “propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”
It was however Richard Alan Nelson in his book, “A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States,” who has a concise definition of propaganda. He wrote; “Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of ONE-SIDED MESSAGES (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels.” (Emphasis mine).
In the efforts of president Goodluck Jonathan and his men to convince Nigerians that zoning is not sacrosanct in choosing the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2011 election, a lot of propaganda machinery, has been unleashed on the public. This is not withstanding the fact that Jonathan is a product of zoning, as are most state governors and public office holders. All of a sudden it is only merit that should determine who becomes the next president. And as always the incumbent president or Head of state possesses that ‘merit’ to continue in office.
So like Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo before him who attempted to stay in power longer than the rules allowed, Jonathan now is the only person that the cap fits.
The bone of contention here, is, does the PDP has a zoning arrangement for aspirants within the party’s fold. The answer is a resounding yes.
The fact is shown by the allocation of offices in 1999. The president was zoned to the South in general, but to the South-West in particular. President Olusegun Obasanjo got the South-West slot between 1999 and 2007. At the time the South-East was allocated the position of Senate President. That was why despite the fact that between 1999 and 2007 the senate had five Senate Presidents all of them were from the South-East. Were it not for zoning many Nigerians would have insisted that the position be removed from the zone before the situation reached the scandalous level of producing five Senate Presidents.
The North produced the Vice President and Deputy Senate President as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. If this power sharing arrangement is not zoning, then I and many others need to be educated on why the PDP tolerated this power allocation formula for eight years.
It was in that spirit of zoning that the Presidency in 2007 was allotted to the North, with Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, as its Chief beneficiary while the Vice President went to the South, this time to South-South in the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, The Senate President went to North Central, Speaker to the South-West. That is the reality.
Therefore, for anybody to say there were no zoning is very pretensions. That is why to sale Jonathan candidacy, his men has to employ some of the worst kind of propaganda to convince the public that zoning never existed or that it was never binding.
First the President, himself led the propaganda. He said, he was in a meeting as the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, where zoning was discussed and that there was never any binding agreement on the subject. Yet the party allocated offices based on zoning. From Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman of PDP, to Chief Tony Anenih, all manners of so-called PDP leaders are emerging claiming that zoning has never been a policy of the party.
They are applying the “BIG LIE” technique of propaganda. It was Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels. (1897-1945), the infamous Nazi propagandist, who perfected the “BIG LIE” technique of propaganda, which is based on the principle that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough times, will be believed by the masses.
However those who want to use the big lie technique, must also be conscious of its drawback. In his book “Public Opinion and Propaganda,” Leonard W. Doob discussed “Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda” where he warned in principle 14(b) that propaganda statements “must be boomerang –proof.”
Already the propaganda has incensed the North that rightly believe that it is still their turn to produce the President in 2011. Many northerners are emotive about it. They are passionate about this. The youths of the zone are mobilizing to resist what they considered attempt to shortchange the zone. This means the big lie technique is failing or has failed.
Another technique is now being applied. This is also lifted from Goebbels’.
Remember, that Goebbels used modern propaganda technique to psychologically prepare the German people for aggressive war and the annihilation of civilian populations. Among other propaganda devices, he accused many of Germany’s ethnic and national minorities (such as Poles, the Jew, the French) of trying to destroy Germany, claiming that Germany’s belligerent actions were taken in self defence.
Now we are being told, that the unity of the country would be threatened if Jonathan did not run and of course win.
Addressing the press last week in Abuja, Professor Jerry Gana, former Information Minister and a well known AGIP (All Government in Power) said that any attempt by any group to stop President Jonathan from contesting the 2011 Presidential election, if he expresses interest to do so, will likely result in serious political crisis in Nigeria, the end of which nobody can predict.
Nigeria, Jerry Gana who was speaking on behalf of northern political Summit, said, “is in political storm just like it was in 1998 and Jonathan, given a free hand to contest the 2011 Presidential election, will bring the nation out of the storm.”
Furthermore, he said, “since by providence, a son of the Niger Delta has become President of Nigeria, any attempt to use zoning to hinder the fulfillment of a perceived God give opportunity to lead Nigeria would only lead the nation into deeper crisis. We must not allow other considerations to trivialize this threat to natural security and stability.”
Will this new propaganda technique work? If it does, then Nigeria would be in a more dire security mess. It means that after Jonathan’s people used fear to make Nigerians fall in line and make him President in 2011, it would not be long some other groups like the Boko Haram and the MASSOB would threaten national security so that from their geographical domain, a president must emerge in order to pacify them. If that is not the sign of a failed state, I don’t know what is. To me a state sustained by fear only, is a failed state.
Propaganda thrives when there is conflict between the mind and the reality. Proponents of propaganda uses emotive argument to becloud reason over particular issues in dispute.
Garth Jowett and Victoria O’ Donnell in their book, “Propaganda and Persuasion,” provided a meaning of propaganda. To them “propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”
It was however Richard Alan Nelson in his book, “A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States,” who has a concise definition of propaganda. He wrote; “Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of ONE-SIDED MESSAGES (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels.” (Emphasis mine).
In the efforts of president Goodluck Jonathan and his men to convince Nigerians that zoning is not sacrosanct in choosing the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2011 election, a lot of propaganda machinery, has been unleashed on the public. This is not withstanding the fact that Jonathan is a product of zoning, as are most state governors and public office holders. All of a sudden it is only merit that should determine who becomes the next president. And as always the incumbent president or Head of state possesses that ‘merit’ to continue in office.
So like Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo before him who attempted to stay in power longer than the rules allowed, Jonathan now is the only person that the cap fits.
The bone of contention here, is, does the PDP has a zoning arrangement for aspirants within the party’s fold. The answer is a resounding yes.
The fact is shown by the allocation of offices in 1999. The president was zoned to the South in general, but to the South-West in particular. President Olusegun Obasanjo got the South-West slot between 1999 and 2007. At the time the South-East was allocated the position of Senate President. That was why despite the fact that between 1999 and 2007 the senate had five Senate Presidents all of them were from the South-East. Were it not for zoning many Nigerians would have insisted that the position be removed from the zone before the situation reached the scandalous level of producing five Senate Presidents.
The North produced the Vice President and Deputy Senate President as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. If this power sharing arrangement is not zoning, then I and many others need to be educated on why the PDP tolerated this power allocation formula for eight years.
It was in that spirit of zoning that the Presidency in 2007 was allotted to the North, with Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, as its Chief beneficiary while the Vice President went to the South, this time to South-South in the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, The Senate President went to North Central, Speaker to the South-West. That is the reality.
Therefore, for anybody to say there were no zoning is very pretensions. That is why to sale Jonathan candidacy, his men has to employ some of the worst kind of propaganda to convince the public that zoning never existed or that it was never binding.
First the President, himself led the propaganda. He said, he was in a meeting as the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, where zoning was discussed and that there was never any binding agreement on the subject. Yet the party allocated offices based on zoning. From Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman of PDP, to Chief Tony Anenih, all manners of so-called PDP leaders are emerging claiming that zoning has never been a policy of the party.
They are applying the “BIG LIE” technique of propaganda. It was Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels. (1897-1945), the infamous Nazi propagandist, who perfected the “BIG LIE” technique of propaganda, which is based on the principle that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough times, will be believed by the masses.
However those who want to use the big lie technique, must also be conscious of its drawback. In his book “Public Opinion and Propaganda,” Leonard W. Doob discussed “Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda” where he warned in principle 14(b) that propaganda statements “must be boomerang –proof.”
Already the propaganda has incensed the North that rightly believe that it is still their turn to produce the President in 2011. Many northerners are emotive about it. They are passionate about this. The youths of the zone are mobilizing to resist what they considered attempt to shortchange the zone. This means the big lie technique is failing or has failed.
Another technique is now being applied. This is also lifted from Goebbels’.
Remember, that Goebbels used modern propaganda technique to psychologically prepare the German people for aggressive war and the annihilation of civilian populations. Among other propaganda devices, he accused many of Germany’s ethnic and national minorities (such as Poles, the Jew, the French) of trying to destroy Germany, claiming that Germany’s belligerent actions were taken in self defence.
Now we are being told, that the unity of the country would be threatened if Jonathan did not run and of course win.
Addressing the press last week in Abuja, Professor Jerry Gana, former Information Minister and a well known AGIP (All Government in Power) said that any attempt by any group to stop President Jonathan from contesting the 2011 Presidential election, if he expresses interest to do so, will likely result in serious political crisis in Nigeria, the end of which nobody can predict.
Nigeria, Jerry Gana who was speaking on behalf of northern political Summit, said, “is in political storm just like it was in 1998 and Jonathan, given a free hand to contest the 2011 Presidential election, will bring the nation out of the storm.”
Furthermore, he said, “since by providence, a son of the Niger Delta has become President of Nigeria, any attempt to use zoning to hinder the fulfillment of a perceived God give opportunity to lead Nigeria would only lead the nation into deeper crisis. We must not allow other considerations to trivialize this threat to natural security and stability.”
Will this new propaganda technique work? If it does, then Nigeria would be in a more dire security mess. It means that after Jonathan’s people used fear to make Nigerians fall in line and make him President in 2011, it would not be long some other groups like the Boko Haram and the MASSOB would threaten national security so that from their geographical domain, a president must emerge in order to pacify them. If that is not the sign of a failed state, I don’t know what is. To me a state sustained by fear only, is a failed state.
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