BUHARI IS GOOD, JONATHAN IS EVIL!By Agha Egwu
Tinubu did two brilliant things in the APC campaign to overthrow PDP. First he painted Buhari as a reformed Angel, as a Messiah bringing change. Anybody who really knew Buhari knew that this was false. But the most brilliant thing about Tinubu propaganda was that he painted Jonathan as evil. They defined GEJ as immeasurably clueless and totally corrupt. This too was false.
So their hordes not only voted for Buhari as the Messiah, but actively voted against Jonathan as the devil incarnate, the harbinger of all things corrupt.
People often underrate propaganda. They think of it as a set of untruths that can be blasted away by simple truths. But propaganda can turn the purest untruths into hardened reality, constructing imaginary world's with its own logic as hard and logical as the real world.
Pick a lie. Repeat it continuously and people come to believe it as truth and incorporate it into their mental world's as hardened truths. It was a method developed by the nazis and deployed to devastating effect in the mass murders of the Jewish holocaust. And that was how the hordes of APC and fellow Nigerians constructed the lies of Tinubu's media machines into their mental worlds as hardened irrevocable truths.
Slowly, as the Buhari disaster unfolded they blamed it on GEJ the devil. Eventually, Buhari 's blunders became so glaring that the excuses have worn thin and more of their followers are now openly regretting ever voting Buhari.
For many of the Hausa Fulani and Northern muslim followers, for whom change meant an Islamic revolution, they still see Buhari as the Mahdi, the Messiah, and are enamoured of his glaring actions to advance an Islamic agenda and Northern dominance. They love it. The economic and social collapse mean nothing to them as Islam comes first, and anything can be sacrificed for it.
For the Yoruba and other southern followers who wanted true social and economic change, and were thoroughly decieved into believing that was what was on offer, a certain cognitive dissonance has set in, in which what they are seeing is in severe discordance with what they expected. They have tried very hard to reconcile and justify the obnoxious actions of Buhari, till they have now become mentally and emotionally exhausted.
For many it is difficult for them to believe that they wanted the best for their country, but have inflicted the worst upon it. Many have realised they made a grievous mistake and have gone silent. Some realise they have been grossly deceived and have come out blazing in anger. Still others are looking for justifications, too embarrassed to admit their terrible error.
But one strand of thought is still keeping them sane - and that was where Tinubu was at his brilliant best - the conviction that Jonathan was so corrupt and clueless he just had to be changed. You would hear them say, but I don't regret removing Jonathan. He was so corrupt. This is now the only justification that the Southerners, especially the Yoruba, are holding on to.
But this must be stripped of them too. The so-called wailing wailers have concentrated on proving the absurdity of a Buhari presidency, and have done so most successfully. But the ex-Buharists are still clinging to the illusion that Jonathan was terribly corrupt and inept and so they removed him.
This propaganda clutter must be removed from their eyes so that by 2019, most former Southern Buharists would face the outrageous truth, that they removed the best President this country has ever had and replaced him with the worst ever.
Jonathan was certainly not as corrupt as those before him. The truth is that all Nigerian administrations, including Buhari have been enormously corrupt. So corruption is a given. Everybody did and does it, so in comparing Nigerian adminstrations, corruption must be taken as a constant.
But what about Jonathan 's achievements. They are simply staggering for a Nigerian President. The ex-Buharists have been so propagandised that when you show facts of these achevements they deny it.
Jonathan made Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, first destination in Africa for foreign investrnent, third fastest growing economy in the world after China and South Korea. The ex-Buharists will say it's a lie or did it put food on the table. But now that we have a recession under Buhari they keep mute or mutter excuses.
You point out the trains GEJ developed they said those are outmoded, even though they later claimed it. You point out the 10 or more Federal universities he developed, they say they are not functioning even though they have graduated students. You point out the Almajiri schools they say where are they? You show them the airports he reconstructed, they look the other way.
You now look at the people oriented policies, the democratic credentials, the freedom of speech, the Youwin programme that bred so many young entrepreneurs and compare these things under Buhari or any previous President, you realise that the Jonathan slogan of a breath of fresh air was no lie.
Reforming Ex-Buharists are still trying to justify that it was right to vote out Jonathan. I call upon all wailers to start shifting focus. The depicting of the true demonic and imbecilic, clueless nature of Buhari has been thoroughly exposed.
Now that web of propaganda that trapped so many into believing that Jonathan was so bad he had to go, must be ruthlessly rooted out. They must face the full horror of the crime they committed against the Nigerian State - they removed the best President we have ever had and replaced him with the worst ever.
That is the only way we can ensure they do not repeat such a grievous mistake in 2019. They must learn to resist all propaganda, shine their eyes and pick the best out of whatever choices they throw at us.
