Afe Babalola, CON, OFR, SAN; a Nigerian lawyer and founder of Afe Babalola University, once said; “Experience has shown time without number that in Nigeria, campaigns are normally used to focus not on issues deserving attention, but on negative matters which in reality should not be the focus of any serious election campaign”. Election debates and campaigns globally are content-based. Electorate largely get to make their choices from the contents of deliverables in the manifestos of political parties and their candidates. They read and listen to the workability of each candidate’s plan of actions before taking an informed decision on who to vote for.
Precisely in about four weeks time from now, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will flag off and formally declare Nigeria’s political space open for campaigns by candidates flying the flags of the respective political parties at the presidential, governorship and various legislative levels. What are we expecting from the candidates and political parties? Should we expect a resort by the candidates to vulgar abuse, indecent and indecorous words, exchange of inanities or presentation of ideas to solve existing national challenges, planning for the future and novel concepts of societal organisation?
Interestingly, character assassination is a pervasive and destructive phenomenon that is found everywhere. You find it in families, political arena, places of worship, organizations, work places, etc. Character assassination is the deliberate, malicious, unjustified and sustained effort to damage the reputation or credibility of an individual. Character assassination is the slandering of a person usually with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person. Character assassination is the act of lowering one’s character in a bid to ruin the character of others.
There are people that take maximum delight in ruining other’s reputation. These set of people have what I will like to call ‘Destructive Tendencies’. They oil their own ego by pulling other people down. PhD (pull him down). False allegations are the most chronic form of mental abuse. When people can’t kill your dreams and purpose, they will try to assassinate your character. There are some people that your spirit will always irritate their demons! Once they realize hating isn’t working they start telling and spreading lies about you. People are assassinated once but ‘Character Assassination’ kills daily! Character assassination is a form of emotional violence against others.
Ironically, people seem to be running away (flight instead of fight), dopamine (too much dopamine concentrated in some parts of the brain and not enough in other parts leading to inordinate wants, disruptive and destructive competition leading to aggressive pursuit of material things and runaway corruption. During election and campaign period especially, our people seem to be able to forget their suffering in a manner that suggests that their ethnicity, religion, under-education and poverty are arrested by the politicians in the same manner that a medical practitioner would inject serotonin to a patient to relieve their depression. Once this occurs, we seem in the majority to be able to secret oxytocin with limitless good mood and happiness, turning a serious period that should be characterised with reflection, analysis and guarded decisions into “owambe” road show and street parties. Dancing and Entertainment instead of demonstrating the capacity to deliver.
Flowing from the foregoing, I will like to share with us a particular piece of information circulating on the social media space and sent to me by a long standing friend with the intention to drive home a point. Please find below my immediate response and the damaging material:
DONALD DUKE ON THE MAN, ATIKU. “Atiku served under my father in customs sir. My father was posted to Rivers State as the Area Administrator for the South South for Customs and we all grew up in Portharcort before he was elevated to No 2 in Customs as Deputy Director of Customs. I very much remember Atiku coming to our house with files as a junior officer for my dad to sign. He was always protected by the Emirs in the North anytime Customs wanted to suspend him for a lot of reasons I can’t mention here. Though my father is a blind 88years old man now, he vehemently prays that Atiku will never rule Nigeria otherwise we are finished.”
My response: “I have studied the stuff you sent me: firstly, I don’t know what to do with such information on a man of his status; secondly I don’t engage or indulge in character assassination; thirdly, I am on a mission that is divine in nature and I will stick to my assignment and stay on my lane without getting involved in any bandwagon or mob mentality. Finally, I sincerely believe that such “incongruence” or unsubstantiated allegations are products ‘of’ or ‘for’ porous minds, as such I beg to be excused from issues of blackmail and character assassination”.
My concern from the foregoing, is that numerous historical examples show that character assassination has always been a very effective weapon to win political battles or settle personal scores. character assassination: the act of saying false things about a person usually in order to make the public stop liking or trusting that person. Sometimes what you love to do could even make many people to hate you. You may go through non-formal torments, character assassinations, verbal assaults and societal rejections, but if you are convinced about your love for what you are doing, you will never give up. Interestingly, I have been through it before. I know what it means to be the victim of mob actions of conspiracy of the crowd.
Therefore, never judge someone’s character based on the words of another. Instead, study the motives behind the words of the person casting the bad judgment. An honest woman can sell tangerines all day and remain a good person until she dies, but there will always be naysayers who will try to convince you otherwise. Perhaps this woman did not give them something for free, or at a discount. Perhaps too, that she refused to stand with them when they were wrong — or just stood up for something she felt was right. And also, it could be that some bitter women are envious of her, or that she rejected the advances of some very proud men. Always trust your heart. If the Creator stood before a million men with the light of a million lamps, only a few would truly see him because truth is already alive in their hearts. Truth can only be seen by those with truth in them. He who does not have Truth in his heart, will always be blind to her.
In conclusion, this article seeks to encourage Nigerians to do the needful, stay focused and embrace the can-do spirit even as we navigate through the storm towards the promised land.
ARISE ‘O COMPATRIOTS
Richard Odusanya is a Social Reform Crusader and the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI
