The African Action Congress (AAC) has called out a digital media company, TechCabal over its data analysis where it claimed that 37% of tweets made by Omoyele Sowore, the party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election, were smear campaigns.
In the analysis, the group claimed that out of the 18 presidential candidates, nine were actively using social media. "Their posts were about campaigns, voter encouragement, press releases and sometimes lies against opponents. For example, 37% of Presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore's tweets were smear campaigns."
Reacting to the report, AAC in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Femi Adeyeye, rejected the report's claims.
Adeyeye said the party’s candidate in the election, Sowore, was the most objective. He also described Sowore as the candidate who had the clearest ideas on issues and was most available to debate anyone on policies.
Adeyeye noted that Sowore and his handlers criticised and scrutinised every policy and programme of candidates running in the election.
According to him, they made it very clear that electoral choices have consequences and "it is not about just campaigning to Nigerians about your own programmes, you must tell them the dangers of supporting anti-progressive candidates and voting for their policies".
Titled "From Techcabal To Smear Cabal: Criticizing Flawed Policies And Programmes Of Candidates Is Not Smear Campaign," the party's spokesperson insisted that the AAC and its candidate were the only strong voices against the disastrous naira redesign policy and the recent devastating petrol subsidy removal that has now made life unbearable for the masses.
The statement reads, "The attention of the National Working Committee of the African Action Congress (AAC) has been drawn to a “data analysis” published by one entity operating under the name, “TechCabal”. This entity has published on its social media handle a chart of supposed social media engagements by candidates and their supporters during the 2023 Nigerian general elections.
"We are only seizing this opportunity to educate the general public that these are disinformation tactics which is a known trade of a particular candidate, Peter Obi and his handlers to continually deceive Nigerians by demonising any person critical of his election campaigns.
"We are not surprised at this plot as this has been the case since the 2023 campaign started and after the elections have ended, albeit disastrously. It was exactly how their media agents and some paid pollsters claimed they have won the elections even before the first ballot was cast. Nigerians know better today."
It added, "It is important to state to the general public that we are not oblivious of tech tools that help with propel: "Sentiment Analysis." “Positive”, “Negative” and “Neutral” are usually the sections on those tools and it is what the 'digital machine' is trained to assign as each sentiment, it assigns. What tool was used? What exactly did the tool capture as engagements? What did the tool capture as “smear campaign?”
"Aside from this fact, it will also be incredulous and ludicrous to accept hook, line and sinker the results of even such an analysis because we understand how the social media sector operates and had been weaponised to deceive the unwary and demonise genuine voices of change. It is a known fact that despite the many advantages of the new media, it has also been a hustle ground for propagandists of politicians, many of whom hide under bogus platforms to attack whomever they are paid to attack or those with whom they have political disagreements.
"So to sit in a labyrinth of “vivid imagination” and plot out a chart with “smear campaign” as a variable or even an output, stabs logic on the head and it is so un-techy."
AAC said if the group had genuine intentions, how did it leave out the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), who “broadly paid social media influencers, media practitioners, content creators and con artists millions to abuse, smear, blackmail and even threaten the AAC candidate?”
It cited the report of the European Union Election Observer Mission (EU EOM), on the 2023 Presidential Election, which unlike its usual diplomatic demeanour listed two top APC campaigners, Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani-Kayode as false news peddlers, and then went on to say that Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi and the candidate of the PDP, Abubakar Atiku had more dubious followers on Twitter.
AAC queried, "What do dubious supporters and fake news bearers do besides smear campaigns? Our candidate in the 2023 elections, Omoyele Sowore, himself a tech-savvy individual, was the most objective, the clearest on issues and most available to debate anyone on policies.
"He and his handlers criticized and scrutinized every policy and programme of candidates running in the election, he was targeted and frequently smeared for taking a stand, at a point social media teams of major political parties especially members of the Labour Party publicly cooked up false stories to deter him from critically engaging other candidates. The imprints are out there on the internet for everyone to confirm."
Giving an instance, AAC said, "We made it very clear that electoral choices have consequences and it is not about just campaigning to Nigerians about your own programmes, you must tell them the dangers of supporting anti-progressive candidates and voting for their policies. If nothing was learnt at all from our theses, we believe that as of today, the Nigerian masses must have learnt from one of the dangerous policies we criticized vehemently.
"Omoyele Sowore and the AAC were the only strong voices against the disastrous naira redesign policy, the recent devastating petrol subsidy removal that has now made life unbearable for the masses of our people. We can boldly say today that we warned Nigerians against voting for any of the anti-masses, anti-poor candidates, including Peter Obi of the LP.
"If this warning with continuous criticism and education is what “TechCabal” classifies as “smear campaign”, we may just advise those behind the entity to take some to work on their comprehension of political campaigns.
"As a party, we remain focused on the task of rebuilding, re-energising and re-organising the people towards a revolutionary liberation and transformation. We've come a long way demobilising cabals be they political or hiding behind technology."