The combatants are all out. They speak from both sides of the mouth.
Most of the time, tongue-in-cheek. Decorum is not in their dictionary when they are using words. They derive happiness when they deploy verbal arsenal to shoot down their opponents. Their job is not only to defend, promote and protect their principals, their responsibility also entails them go shoot down their opponents and discredit them using all available means. They are the presidential campaign spokespersons. This week we look at three of them. Happy reading.
Festus Keyamo, All Progresive Congress (APC)
Eyebrows were raised when Festus Keyamo(SAN) and Minister of state for Labour was appointed as the spokesperson of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation. These interrogations bordered on the fact on two things: One, Keyamo in 2002, had sued the Lagos Assembly over Tinubu as the then governor of Lagos State in a case titled Keyamo V. House Of Assembly, Lagos State. Among other things, Keyamo had alleged amongst other things that Tinubu forged his certificates.
It was therefore morally incomprehensible how a man who alleged certificate forgery against Tinubu would now come around to be the one speaking for him.
But even if you disregard this, the second point is revealing. In his office as the Minister of State, he has a poster that boldly displays the picture of Shettima with these words: The Shettima Boys. That picture depicted both Tinubu and Shettima as presidential flag bearers of APC. but Tinubu’s picture was less prominent than that of Shettima. Analysts say this is an indication that Keyamo does not believe in the Tinubu project but is rather working for Shettima.
However, no matter the way you look at it, he has been the most prominent, most visible and most pronounced of other presidential spokespersons.
Keyamo has also been very combative, defensive and most aggressive of all.
Just recently, Keyamo has committed a lot of faux pa’s. For instance, while the Presidential candidate of APC, Bola Tinubu was in London, he went to Channels Television and said he was not aware of the whereabouts of their presidential candidate. He said: “Our candidate is not in the country currently and I don’t have any information on where he is. I know he will be back in a couple of days but I don’t know the particular day.”
Hours later, he went to Arise Television and said about Tinubu: “He’s hale, hearty and healthy. He’s out of the country for a number of days. No controversy about his whereabouts. And he’s not a president to issue statements as to his whereabouts. And I spoke with his son this morning. I spoke with Seyi and he said Asiwaju is fine. He was sleeping.”
In also trying to defend his principal and the party, he said lately that Nigerians are hungry and are yearning for a better leadership. This statement attracted a lot of criticisms from Nigerians who said Keyamo was indirectly de-marketing Tinubu and APC as that statement was an indication of total failure in the party.
Given the enormous baggage of integrity hanging over his principal, particularly considering his health status, certificates scandal and corruption allegations, defending or promoting Tinubu is indeed an arduous task. And in this regard, Keyamo has discharged his duties well. On a scale of one to five, Keyamo is far above others in responsiveness and depth.
Dr. Yunusa Tanko, Labour Party
Dr. Tanko Yusuf has just been named the Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign chief spokesman. What many do not know is that the popularity of the Labour Party is owed partly to the foundational, but discreet work that Tanko and others have been doing even before Peter Obi became the presidential candidate of the party.
Dr, Tanko was a presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the 2019 general elections and former chairman of Interparty Advisory Council, IPAC.
Before now, he was the spokesperson of the Third Force Coalition.
The Third Force is a coalition – a conglomerate of individuals such as Prof. Pat Utomi and others, who were championing the cause of a new political movement different from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).
The Third Force then adopted the Labour Party as its own political vehicle that has now attracted 15 registered political parties that joined the Labour Party recently. He says that the focus of the Third Force is to bring in a new ideologically- based political party that will take Nigeria out of the woods of the dominant political parties.
He is a firm believer and an advocate of a president of Igbo extraction. But he does not believe in rotational presidency but says that competence and credibility should override zoning in elections. He also spoke on other national issues.
Dr. Tanko is also a firm believer in restructuring and says “we should sit down and look at how Nigeria is structured and how it is affecting every part of the country. We should make sure that every part of this country has a fair deal.”
One thing that has set him apart from the other spokespersons is the panache, the candour and conduct he has deployed in equitable discharging his spokesmanship duties, He sticks to addressing issues instead of attacking individuals. He has not plunged into the gutter like others in advertising the party and its candidates. This of course has helped to grow the Third core, and now the LP into a formidable stature.
Sen. Dino Melaye, Peoples Democratic Party(PDP)
When in May 2022 Senator Dino Melaye lost his bid to win the party’s Senatorial ticket in Kogi, he said he was rededicating his time and resources to support Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in his presidential bid. Months later, he was appointed the Atiku presidential campaign spokesman.
Like Keyamo, Melaye has been combative, antagonistic, belligerent and cantankerous. If he is not starting a social media fight, he is throwing his hopes in the ring without invitation in a bid to defend his principal. He uses uncouth words, attacks personalities, especially other presidential spokespersons.
Recently he was engaged in a social media fight with Fani-Kayode, a staunch supporter of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu. Fani-Kayode had reacted to Melaye’s interview where he said that all the PDP Governors spent money at the party’s National Convention to get Senator Iyorcha Ayu elected as National Chairman.
FFK described Dino’s assertion as an open confession of how deeply corrupt the party was. This did not go down well with Melaye. He called Fani-Kayode a drug addict. He said: “My attention has just been called to a statement issued by Femi Fani Kayode, which as usual, was an incoherent gibberish produced from his temporary relief from insanity.” He accused Fani-Kayode of collecting N2 billion from Rivers State and using it on illegal drugs. He also released a video on his Twitter handle where three men came to him, begging him to invite FFK for a dinner and he said No, he is not going to bankroll anybody or give anyone stomach infrastructure.
Head-long he has taken on Keyamo and Obidients. In Al, of this, he has not been able to Marshall out very well the manifesto and master plan of Atiku. But since there is no agreement as to the responsibilities of a spokesperson, one could posit that Melaye has done well in projecting Atiku.
Chief Dele Momodu, PDP
One of the greatest media assets of the campaign organisation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is former presidential aspirant and the publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, as Director of the campaign, overseeing Strategic Communications.
Momodu, a consummate media personality and motivational speaker is the CEO and publisher of Ovation International.
Momudu also enjoys a robust followership on social media with over 2.6 million followers on social media.
He was a media adviser to the Presidential campaign of the late MKO Abiola, the billionaire businessman and acclaimed winner of the 12 June 12 1993 election which was controversially annulled by the military regime. So he is coming with a lot of experience and is more qualified as a presidential spokesman than the rest.
In 2011, he ran for President on the platform of the National Conscience Part (NCP),. He lost in that poll, garnering just 26, 376 votes, taking the 11th position among 20 other candidates.
Just before he was made a presidential spokesman, Momodu had declared his intention to contest the Presidency as a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). “I learned a lesson. You can only win a Presidential election as a member of the PDP or the All Progressives Congress ”, he said.
But since he couldn’t realise his ambition, thehe veteran journalist is now hoping to use his wide network and social media presence to bear on his new responsibility as a director in the campaign team. This is how he sums up his relevance: “I am one of the biggest politicians on social media. I handle my social media accounts- Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. I have a direct followership of 1.6 million followers on Twitter alone, 746,000 on Instagram and about 300,000 on Facebook. I have everything I need. I have content.”
Among the Spokesmen, Momodu is the most experienced and well-rounded. He is also less combative and less belligerent. He does not disparage or cast aspersions on the opponents but dwells on issues and perspectives as they would aid him in projecting his party and presidential candidate.
Discussion about this post