The Buhari Campaign Organisation has declared its commitment to the highest standards of decency and probity as it formally opens its media and communication office to provide honest, credible and responsible information to the general public through the platforms provided by the country’s vibrant media organisations.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the February 14, 2015 presidential election also challenged his competitors – the only notable of which is President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – and their sympathisers to produce and propagate only the messages that will enlighten and ennoble the process of choosing the president of the world’s most populous black nation
A statement signed by the campaign’s Director of Media and Communications, Dele Alake, reads in parts: “While we congratulate the old media for the maturity and capacity displayed in integrating new media and technologies into their operations, experience has shown that the traditional skill of gate keeping crucial to the production of credible and accurate information has become a major challenge in the news dissemination process.
“This is why we endorse Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage and pledge to co-operate with all media stakeholders to ensure that the objectives of the coverage, including the need to educate the people on the electoral process, provide informed choices, treat journalists with respect and understanding, are attained. Since we cannot blame the messenger for the message, the situation calls for the exercise of strong restraint in the issuance of messages by all interested parties. We challenge our competitors and their sympathisers to produce and propagate only the messages that will enlighten and ennoble the process of choosing the president of the world’s most populous black nation.
“We, at the Buhari Campaign Organisation, hereby pledge to conduct a campaign focused on the issues which will qualitatively uplift the average Nigerian from poverty to prosperity and bring hope to a populace seeking refuge from uncertainty. The issues of electricity generation and distribution, poverty elimination, eradication of corruption, mass employment and security of lives and property are going to form the focal points of our campaign.
“These issues have no ethnic colour. Poverty afflicts the old and the young. Unemployment has no political affiliation. Insecurity damages the economy precariously. Insecurity may be more prominent in the North East in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency but the reality is that Nigerians generally have never been as endangered as they now are.”
