Need for Ondo State Electorate To Look Beyond Campaign Rhetorics To The Specifics In This Present Election Cycle
Written By Oladimeji Daniels
Today is July the 13th, 2020. It is a day that marks the beginning of open political campaign for the October the 10th, 2020 governorship election in Ondo State. Politicians, being who they are, had already erected campaign billboards and put up their posters all over the state in flagrant disobedience to the law that electioneering campaign must not commence not less 90 days to the election.
In spite of this obvious violation of the law, broadcasting outfits had no choice than to abide by the law as anything contrary to that would attract serious sanctions from the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, which regulates the broadcasting industry.
Thus, political campaign in form of jingles, programmes and live coverage of rallies on the Ondo State gubernatorial election officially begins on radio and television stations today.
As expected, the different political parties and governorship candidates or aspirants will try to outdo one another in saturating the airwaves with their different messages. It would certainly get so noisy that sieving through the noise may become difficult for the electorate.
As have been proven countless times before, good messaging does not necessarily translate into competence or sincerity of a governorship aspirant or candidate.
It therefore behoves members of the public to look beyond the campaign rhetorics to the specifics by asking the right questions of candidates and interrogating every issue dispassionately.
Certainly, vote-buying is a big issue, but should the cycle continue, the electorate should know that no excuse whatsoever would be enough justification for the poverty that awaits them for another four years.
More often than not, political parties have not always presented the best of candidates due to power grab, greed and selfish interests. This election cycle may not be different, but in a state that is as politically conscious as Ondo State, the electorate must be ready to punish whichever party that presents a bad candidate.
No doubt, this season will be politically tensed and that tension can be heightened if media stations play into the hands of politicians by allowing their airwaves to become the playground for hate.
Section 95 of the electoral Act states “that no political campaign or slogan shall be tainted with
abusive language directly or indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings.
Abusive, intemperate, slanderous or base language or insinuations or innuendoes designed or likely to
provoke violent reaction or emotions shall not be employed or used in political campaigns” and section 102 of the Act further states that “Any candidate, person or association who engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on religious, tribal, or sectional reason for the purpose of promoting or opposing particular political party or the election of a particular candidate, is guilty of an offence under this Act and on conviction shall be liable to a maximum fine of N1, 000,000 or imprisonment for twelve months”.
Obviously, this law has not been effectively enforced, but broadcast outfits owe it a duty to not be part of the usual destructive jamboree that attends every election cycle.
Part of section 5 of the NBC Code states that “political programmes shall observe the provisions of extant Acts and Electoral laws”. This is a class B offence under the code and attracts a serious sanctions.
Media stations in Ondo State owe it a duty at this time to ensure that the peace in the state is preserved irrespective of the tendencies of politicians.