MATTHEW OKIRI OKEYIM
“ Whether or not Propaganda is truthful in Cross River state Politics is becoming irrelevant all what our Political opponents want is to grab Power by misleading and misinforming our audience about our giant strides, so all we need to do is to counter their negativism against the government of Cross River state through effective public enlightenment “ {MO OKEYIM}
ABSTRACT:
The work in this short piece shall attempt to discuss on the politics of Cross River state, propaganda and its consequences 2019-23. Propaganda is an instrument used by political opponents to convince an audience to accept a particular idea whether good or bad often by steaming up emotions within a polity. The primary and secondary method of data collection shall be used and data shall be collected. Negative Propaganda is deeply rooted in division, disunity, deceit, violence, self egoism and the quest for power. Cross River state is the scope of analysis. The central thesis in this piece is the attack carried out by some political opponents against Senator Prof. Ben Ayade, s government and his giant strides through the instruments of propaganda. The objectives includes: {a}To grab political power{b} To mislead and misdirect the audience through wrong information{c} To cause confusion that will trigger disunity{d} To misrepresent the government . The significance of this piece is centred on the recent online activities and offline carried out by some political opponents in attacking the State Government through its giant strides. Our findings include the recruitment of online apologist in the state by political opponents against the state Government. The work concludes that disciples of a given regime must not allow negative propaganda to strive because it causes disunity, confusion, and civil strife.
WORDS USED: Convince, audience, misinformation, war, confusion, power, propaganda
INTRODUCTION:
In 1994, the politics of propaganda triggered the Rwanda Genocide which represented one of the most brutal episodes of political violence in African soil and the international Community. Over 1 million Tutsi and Hutsi were killed in the propagandist war of genocide. What caused this war was simply “Propaganda” the role of the mass media especially the informal sector through the spreading of misleading false information for Rwandans to start killing one another. Around 1967-70 part of the problem that triggered the Nigerian Civil war in some cases is attributable to Massive and huge propaganda machinery. In Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia and recently north and Southern Sudan the wars within Africa might not be outside the role of propaganda {Read Propaganda and conflict Evidence from Rwandan Genocide and knowledge of the role of the media on the killings in Rwanda}. The danger of propaganda and inflammatory messages calling for the extermination of the minority Tutsi fuelled by political violence and majority Hutsi is a lesson we must all learn within our domain and across borders{ David Yanagizawa}. The history and politics of Cross river state therefore has not been that of massive propaganda since 1999- 2015, it is disheartening therefore to witness some of our political opponents using the instruments of propaganda as a means to achieving sustainable Democracy. Political opponents in Cross River State whose major strategy is to use massive propagandist machinery to smear their opponents are advised in the interest of national security to think twice because of the implication of misleading the audience.
Propaganda is a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence emotions and actions of specific target audience for ideological, political and commercial purposes { (Nelson, 1966). Propaganda was a negative tool used by Adolf Hitler Nazis group in informing the beliefs of the German public. This was done through films, mass media, posters and the Radio. Messages from the above instruments for meant for the people to accept them as the de factor means of communication and deceit against anyone that will venture not to accept their regime. Today in CRS politics some political opponents have invaded Face book as a defector means of communication mislead the people of Cross River state through false information.
Some of these false propagandist messages against the dynamic, supersonic and digital Governor of Cross River state can be found in an online Face book platform known as Coalition. One of them opines “Are you still around the Ayade cabinet room? Are you still in defence of this incompetent Governor? This is Peter Offem Ubi’s propaganda again or are Crossriverians speaking my propaganda for me?”{ } the aim of these propagandist messages is to grab political power through the spreading of misinformation, libelling and blackmailing. The controlling of information is important, but this must not be done in a negative way as it is being practiced in Cross River State for the purpose of 2019-23 gubernatorial elections.
Propaganda must not be used as an instrument of disunity, political violence, terroristic internet activities and unnecessary attacks against a regime. When propaganda becomes an instrument of attack as it is done by some dissidents and enemies of the state in some online platforms across the state then it becomes a criminal act not only in Society.
However, the idea in this piece was to briefly highlight some of the consequences of propaganda on the government and politics of Cross River state; Though, there are a few important areas in which we may not have deliberately ignored like the methods being used by propagandist like working through the legislature, lobbying , forging documents , bribery and corruption, misrepresenting government, Demonstrations, strikes, political violence, and spreading of false information that is meant to mislead the audience. Sometimes they make use of pictures, ideas, personalities, and symbols to oppose the regime { (Lee, 1970).
While there is much to be said on the consequences of propaganda in CRS in 2019-23 in our politics, our concentration is on how best we can contain the excess of the propagandist activities across the state in 2019-23.? In the process of trying to understand what is in this piece, we have divided this work into four categorical sections.
Section one opines with the introduction. Section Two is the literature Review, while section three deals with the findings and the last section is the Conclusion.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION:
Certain concepts used in this piece are defined for purpose of understanding:
Politics is defined as an authoritative allocation of scarce values {David Easton}
Politics is defined as who gets what, when and how? {Harold Lasswell}
Propaganda is defined as the spreading of ideas, attitudes and doctrines and misrepresentation of information {Walter Lippmann}
Consequence is a result of a particular action or situation, often that is bad or not convenient {Cambridge English Dictionary}
LITERATURE REVIEW:
“Propaganda is a form of Communication that attempts to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist; Persuasion is interactive and attempts to satisfy the needs of both persuader and persuadee, To what extent is the persuation?ll (Angell, 2004)
The Literature Review shall deal extensively with the following as some of the main consequences of propaganda against the government of Cross River in 2019-23 gubernatorial elections. The world has become literary in everyone’s hands through our smart phones, but that does not mean that we should engage ourselves in massive propaganda. It does not mean necessarily that people should not engage in propagandist activities, but such actives must be positive not negative. Following the 1994 genocide that was triggered by the propaganda and the spreading of false information one is being careful to sound a note of warning that negative propaganda is an enemy of the state and progress within the developing world. It is no longer news that propaganda was being used in times of war it’s now used even during times of peace in our society. It should be noted that one is not of the opinion that propaganda shapes public opinion in emerging societies { (Bruck J. M.)
The Literature Review shall deal extensively with the following as some of the main consequences of propaganda against the government of Cross River in 2019-23 gubernatorial elections:
Firstly, one major consequence of propaganda carried out by our political opponents is the manipulating and the misleading of the audience across the state during the gubernatorial election for their own selfish interest of grabbing political power. The audience might be aware of the truth but due to pressure they might be susceptible to change their minds against the regime. Propagandist in spreading their messages to their target audience will not reveal the real truth of the contents of the message about the personality or government activities.
Secondly, propagandist always concealed the real purpose for attacking a government. The truth of the matter is that they abuse the government not or the interest of the people, but for their own selfish interest. They do not care for the audience as it is being perceived. In most cases they work for some organisations in the state as well as powerful individuals who have a hidden agenda to take over the instruments of government through the spreading and misleading of information.
Thirdly, propagandist activities are interested in manipulating the behaviour of voters across the domain for their own interest. This can be done through the cheering and yelling of certain political candidates by the target audience.
Propagandist machinery brings about political violence, confusion, hatred, false information, and disunity, disaffection amongst government officials, anxiety, and civil wars.
The idea behind the propaganda from some of our political opponents in CRS is to grab political power not by the ballot box, but by carrying out negative propaganda against the leadership of regime and passing misinformation to the audience about the giant strides of our administration. The action of the propagandist activities in 2019- 23 must be combated with a huge public enlightenment campaign by the political appointees who owe the state a positive obligation of defending the state.
FINDINGS:
In the course of this piece some findings arrived at includes:
-Propagandist activities online and offline are causing political disaffection amongst opponents as stated in coalition platform
-2019-23, propaganda is an instrument our political opponent is intending to use since they may not be able to win through the ballot box.
- Propagandist activities in 2019-23, will involve threatening of lives by opponents, using sophisticated weapons against opponents with dissenting opinions
-usage of posters, banners, news items, postcards and fake information against our giant strides
CONCLUSION:
The consequences of propaganda as recorded in the 1994, genocide cannot be over- emphasised. Propaganda has been successful mostly during war periods, but at this moment it is a subversive instrument means of communication used negatively by some of our political opponents in CRS To achieve their goals . This is conspicuously stated as what is happening in an online platform where the GOVERNOR OF THE STATE IS OPENLY ABUSED BY A GROUP OF POLITICALLY MISINFORMED VANGUARDS {READ 6/6/2018 ON COALITION}.
Propaganda as the defacto means of communication in CRS is detrimental to our politics, government, development and economic growth. The truth is that negative propaganda is criminal and punishable by law especially when those involved abuse and attack the leadership of Cross River state. It is my opinion that propaganda should not be allowed to create stagnant minds in the lives of our dear people in 2019 -23 instead of ingenuity.
N/B
This work is still undergoing some construction. You may not derive any right in piece without the consent of the writer. Please be well guided. The work is to be continued.
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