Campaign Video?
I watched a YouTube video about Nigeria and Boko Haram called “COUNTER INSURGENCY OPERATION: The Gains and Prospects,” from Max Siollun’s website.
The video opens on five men in uniform, most white, at the back of a truck which contains a large cooler like I take to the beach, a rifle, and a water bottle. Next we see Nigerian soldiers searching in what looks like a school building. They find no one. After twenty-five seconds, we observe one soldier being boosted over a wall by his comrades. Huh?
I couldn’t figure out the purpose of the video. I continued watching and I finally got it – it’s an ad for the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. We see Jonathan telling viewers that Boko Haram is Al Qaeda in Nigeria. We hear a deep-voiced announcer reading from the constitution to convince us that Jonathan acted within the law in declaring a state of emergency. We are told that the military has been given all necessary support, but is confronting an unconventional enemy. For 25 minutes we learn why Jonathan hasn’t succeeded.
Dear Nigerian readers, tell me! Have you seen this video? If you had the patience to watch all the way through, did it persuade you that your vote should go to the incumbent? What about my other readers? Would the video persuade you to vote for Goodluck Jonathan? A shout-out to anyone who watched all 25 minutes!
Election News Everywhere
An article called “A Tough Choice in Nigerian Elections” is from Al Jazeera. The reporter interviewed Oluwaseyi Adepoju in Lagos who said he is so discouraged by the choice, and by the violence after the last election, that he will not vote.
Wole Soyinka speaks on the election.
BBC had an interview with Wole Soyinka where he talks about the choices. I wasn’t sure where his preference lay. Can you tell?
I was surprised to find that even Vatican Radio had a piece on the Nigerian election. On February 19th a reporter interviewed Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archibishop of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, who said, “The Nigerian nation should take on its basic responsibility to keep our nation secure, and to keep the people safe during the election, and also outside of the election period.”
The Cardinal continued, “We believe that this is not beyond their power to do. In fact, they have no excuse not to prepare the ground for a free, fair, and voluntary election. If the government, by omission or commission, does not assure this, it means the government has lost seriously . . .”
You can listen to the brief interview and/or read the transcript. When I first read it, I thought he was criticizing the current government, but I’m not sure. I wouldn’t expect that of a bishop. What do you think?
Another fascinating piece on the election is about a group called TMG, or Transition Monitoring Group. The publication SciDev.Net. interviewed Armsfree (I love that name!) Onomo, TMG’s media manager.
He described the important role that mobile technology can play in monitoring elections. I learned that TMG has been operating since 1998, the year of handover from military to civilian rule. Several civil society organizations came together to encourage a free and fair electoral process.
Onomo said, “The electoral architecture still puts an enormous amount of power in the hands of the ruling party when it comes to appointing electoral overseers. . . there is still a lot to be done to ensure the electoral system is fair to all parties.”
They will deploy their observers to randomly selected polling stations to watch “election day processes, such as poll officials’ arrivals, accreditation, vote sorting, counting and the announcement of results . . The observers report via coded text messages to the government’s National Information Centre, where data is analysed by trained statisticians.”
I hope they are effective.
Targets of Prejudice
I’ve been thinking about the similarities between tribalism as I’ve seen it in Nigeria and other countries of Africa and racism as it is experienced in the U.S. One dictionary I consulted says prejudice is, “unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding an ethnic, racial, social, or religious group.”
Tribalism is prejudice based on ethnic origin. It has a rich history in Nigeria and certainly contributed to the Biafran War. Religious prejudice was also a contributor and is playing a role in the electoral politics now.
Racism is prejudice based on skin color. In the U.S. it is deep-seated and harmful, though often not overt. As FBI Director Comey said in his recent speech, even when we resist it intellectually, it can influence our thinking.
Extreme prejudice based on skin color targets albinos in Tanzania. This article in the NYTimes two days ago describes the death of a one-year old albino child. It nearly broke my heart.
The article says, “The reason for the atrocity? The baby’s pale skin marked him as an albino, and, where he lived in southeast Africa, albinos are at risk because their body parts are used for witchcraft. They also face discrimination and are often shunned as outcasts.”
UN officials in Geneva and Tanzania spoke out against this horrific practice. “But the fear persists that, with Tanzanian elections set for October, the risk to the country’s albinos will grow as politicians turn to witchcraft to enhance their prospects,” the article added.
Are there dibias or shamans at work in Nigeria today trying to influence the election? Are albinos at risk in other countries than Tanzania?
And to think in the U.S. we only have SuperPacs, wealthy donors, and repeal of voting rights influencing electoral outcomes.
