A research-based non-governmental organisation, Positive Agenda Nigeria (PAN) has admonished political parties in Osun State and their supporters to refrain from attacking the personalities of their opponents ahead of the July Governorship Election in the state.
The non-partisan organisation stated this in its first weekly report recently released to the public. According to the report, the major political parties in the state, the APC and the PDP, their supporters and media teams were found attacking the personalities of their political opponents instead of focusing more attention on campaign issues that could woo the electorate.
“Both the PDP and the APC attacked each other in terms of personalities of their candidates alongside their capabilities to rule the state, although the PDP engaged in such attacks than the APC. Nonetheless, in a contest like this, concerned observers and citizens of the state would have expected that the political parties, their members/supporters and media team sell the manifestoes of their flagbearers to potential electorate, especially opposition parties that intend slugging it out with the incumbent governor in July, 2022.
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With the current findings, the political parties, their members/supporters and media team are not yet addressing “real campaign issues” every informed electorate in Osun State will want to hear on why they should vote for a particular candidate. We strongly recommend that the political parties, their supporters and media teams start engaging electorate on the social media on real campaign issues/policy programmes instead of demarketing the personalities of their political opponents”, the report concludes.
In an interview with the organisation’s Team Lead, Dr Adebiyi Rasheed Ademola of Fountain University’s Department of Mass Communication in Osogbo, it was revealed that the organisation will monitor and analyse the actors’ campaign efforts for 69 days. Using diverse research methodologies, he notes that members of the team will fiercely pursue answers to informed policy engagement or extensive personality disparagement in the Osun 2022 governorship election campaign. “We posed this issue in light of the political parties’ recent pledges, particularly the two main parties in the state, that they would be respectable in their campaign activities,” Dr Adebiyi explained.
The full report is available for download here
