As the presidential election of 2023 approaches, the political atmosphere is becoming tense, with presidential candidate camps engaging in verbal attacks.
The tension is evident in the camps of the leading candidates, All Progressives Congress (APC) leader Bola Tinubu, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Obi.
DAILY POST has noticed that supporters of these front-runner presidential candidates have intensified their verbal attacks on one another.
Obi supporters have been accused on multiple occasions of insulting and bullying supporters of other presidential candidates online. Some political stakeholders have labeled Obi’s supporters as unforgiving of others.
Last week, Festus Keyamo, spokesman for the APC presidential campaign council, compared the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to a conductor applying for a driver’s job.
In response to Keyamo’s remark, Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, compared Tinubu to a drug lord seeking to head an anti-narcotics agency.
Chuks Ibegbu, a former Ohanaeze Ndigbo spokesman, condemned the verbal attacks and urged Tinubu, Atiku, and Obi’s camps to address the politics of issues.
He urged the front-runner presidential candidates’ campaigns to abandon rancor politics.
“It’s unfortunate that, despite the efforts of the Abdulsalam Abubakar-led National Reconciliation Committee, some political actors are bent on mud-slinging and political rancor,” Ibegbu said
“It is unfortunate that some political actors have failed to learn the lessons of political bitterness.” Political animosity was to blame for the fall of the first Republic and the subsequent civil war.
“It appears that people do not learn from history; why can’t they pursue issue politics?” There is ginger in the land, and people are suffering, yet you see them flying in private jets; see what happened in Uyo. They are not telling us what will put food on our table or solve our problem. That is not what Keyamo and other political aides are interested in; they are only interested in wreaking political havoc everywhere.
“Those people they are using should learn from history. Be you Peter Obi, Tinubu, Kwankwaso, or Atiku; they should talk about politics of issues and tell their followers to stop politics of mudslinging.
“Followers of presidential candidates should face issues and not follow all these men that have stolen us dry in the past.
“I want to advise Tinubu, Peter Obi, and Atiku to address politics of issues and not that of rancor.”