SIR: “There are only ever two ad strategies in an election,” says Lord Tim Bell, Margaret Thatcher’s favourite adman. “It’s either the opposition saying – ‘Time for a change’, or the government saying – ‘Britain’s great again, don’t let the other lot muck it up. The rest is just details.”
And he’s right. But while the strategies stay the same, the executions can vary wildly. When the Saatchis released their infamous Labour Isn’t Working poster in 1978, an incredulous Denis Healey publicly accused the Tories of selling themselves like soap powder. This is not so different from the characteristics of “Andrew Liver Salt” as described by Senator Shehu Sani and the delusional audacity of “Nah we bi d structure” a phrase used deceitfully in exposing the vulnerability and gullibility of the unsuspecting masses.
In its original form, the British Labour Party constituted a new type of cadre party, forming an intermediate link with the mass-based parties. It was formed with the support of trade unions and left-wing intellectuals. At the base, each local organization sent representatives to a district labour committee, which was in turn represented at the national congress.
We should pay close attention to the interactions between politics, economics, and other realms particularly as we prepare for the February 25 presidential/National Assembly (NASS) elections and the March 11 governorship/states assemblies elections.
No doubt, using disinformation, religion/ethnicity and divisive rhetoric to curry sympathy votes from unsuspecting Nigerians is clearly off point. A man who relates with others only on the basis of religion, race or ethnicity is mentally deficient and emotionally unintelligent. Therefore, issues of religion and ethnicity cannot continue to dominate our political space. Nigerians say they want issue-based campaigns, but they rarely vote on issues. Elections in this country are rarely determined by issues, but by ethnic, religious and sectional. We can no longer continue with religion and ethnicity induced arrangements.
Ironically, the challenges are existential in nature: comatose economy, debilitating insecurity, extreme poverty, moribund institutions, failed public services, endemic corruption, and fragile unity.
But by “issue-based” campaigns, the presidential candidates should show deep knowledge and understanding of the governance challenges that beset Nigeria and clearly set out and discuss how they would tackle them, if elected. Therefore, it has become imperative to set a clear agenda and we need to be deliberate in playing down on the twin evils of ethnicity and religion in our political space, now and in future.
The truth is that as a presidential candidate, to win election, you must have political structures that cut across nearly all wards in the 774 local governments in country, if not in all the entire polling units. The fallacies of you don’t need political structures is nothing but deceit. My humble submission is that anybody who is still under the illusion of winning elections, particularly, the presidential election without adequate preparation and political party structures can continue to hold on to his/her delusions, after all, February is just around the corner.
But, beyond the facade of priggish speeches and appearances – an aspiration that is like “Andrew liver salt” –will undoubtedly dissolve come February 25. According to @ShehuSani … Andrew’s Liver Salt is when you move from 10 million man march to canopy state rallies. Diminishing returns – is how Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso one of the frontline presidential candidate compares Labour Party’s ‘Andrews Liver Salt’.
Richard Odusanya,
odusanyagold@gmail.com
