Exclusive:PDP Dubai meeting: Party plans to brand Buhari, APC as Islamist party, use National Assembly to discredit Osinbajo

ABIODUN JIMOH, BENIN CITY

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) desperation to win the 2019 Presidential election at all costs and through spreading of fake news against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have been unveiled. Daily Dispatch Newspaper can exclusively report.

This was gathered in the resolutions of PDP Presidential Campaign Strategy meeting chaired by the party candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku in Dubai, where it was discovered that the party has planned to brand President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC as an Islamist party, as well as to brand him as nepotistic and divisive. 

The resolution, which was the blueprint of the party meeting in Dubai, at the Daily Dispatch Newspaper disposal contained that PDP is planning to ratchet up fake news about the herdsmen crisis as an islamisation tool, as this will be meticulously distributed in the North-Central, South-West, South-South and South-East.

Also, it was discovered that the party has planned to spread negative and false news relating to the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, whom they see as the main poster child of the administration and the most vocal opponent of the PDP. 

The first resolution read: “To spread negative and false news relating to the VP, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who is the main poster child of the administration and the most vocal opponent of the PDP. His continuous branding of PDP as corrupt and our ideas in restructuring as insincere must be nipped in the bud. 

“His visits to markets and the populist imagery he is creating must be tackled vigorously. We must put him on the back foot. It is important to destroy his character ahead of the elections because of the favourable perception that many Nigerians have of him, his capacity and the programs and also to reduce the South-West support. 

“His Christian character must be impugned and maligned seriously. He also seems to have a formidable backroom team that counters our media offensive. This must be weakened. 

“It is also important to address the danger that is inherent in the Social Investment Programmes that Osinbajo promotes. Recall how our effort to utilise our social media trolls 3 weeks ago to discredit the N-Power program backfired. We must devise measures to brand N-Power, Trader Moni and School Feeding as fraudulent and incompetent.”

The party hereby developed tactics included “Opposition research to discredit him, his family, his faith and programs. Commission moles and other agents to dig up dirt on subject.

“Utilise the National Assembly to undertake series of investigations to discredit him and his programs, particularly the Social Investments Program. Create core content for dissemination across channels which will include fake news and blown-up headlines to portray subject as corrupt.

“Utilise our retained media to disseminate core content and messages in the next 6 weeks on mainstream, social media, WhatsApp and by SMS. And to send talking points to our spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.

“Attack all media protagonists/ influencers including the likes of Omojuwa, Ogundamisi, etc. And to enlist more social media influencers for this effort.”

Similarly, the second resolution was to brand President Buhari and the APC as an Islamist party. Brand him as nepotistic and divisive, and to ratchet up fake news about the herdsmen crisis as an islamisation tool. With plans that this will be meticulously distributed in the North-Central, South-West, South-South and South-East.

This part is said to be done through research to create more fearful, threatening and emotive narratives; to create core content to include graphic videos and photographs to drive home their point.

Also, to disseminate through church leadership, town union leadership, artisan and market associations leadership and other groups, as well as to utilise their retained media to disseminate core content and messages where appropriate, and to send talking points to their spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.

In the same vein, the thirds resolution was to use Poverty versus Prosperity Narrative which they want to subliminally convey that PDP allowed things to flow within the economy, while APC has locked up the system. The key message is to say abundance in the system is better than scarcity.  

While the aspect of this message was to say that corruption is not our main problem, rather it is the scarcity that APC has created. 

They aimed to achieve this through research to create more fearful economic narratives; to create core content; to disseminate through all media channels and through their own union leadership, artisan and market associations leadership and other groups.

Also, to utilise their retained media including influencers to disseminate core content and messages, and to send talking points to their spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.

Moreover, the last resolution was to lay claims of infrastructure completion, in which they want to keep saying that they started and had almost finished paying for all the infrastructure APC are laying claim to.

Therefore, it was aimed to be attained by creating core content, disseminate through their media channels, to utilise their retained media to disseminate core content and messages, as well as to send talking points to our spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.

Read full blueprint……

Resolutions of PDP Presidential Campaign Strategy Meeting Held in Dubai, chaired by Alhaji Abubakar Atiku

The Blueprint-

1. Spread negative and false news relating to the VP, Prof Osinbajo, who is the main poster child of the administration and the most vocal opponent of the PDP. His continuous branding of PDP as corrupt and our ideas in restructuring as insincere must be nipped in the bud. His visits to markets and the populist imagery he is creating must be tackled vigorously. We must put him on the back foot. It is important to destroy his character ahead of the elections because of the favourable perception that many Nigerians have of him, his capacity and the programs and also to reduce the South West support. His Christian character must be impugned and maligned seriously. He also seems to have a formidable backroom team that counters our media offensive. This must be weakened.

It is also important to address the danger that is inherent in the Social Investment Programmes that Osinbajo promotes. Recall how our effort to utilise our social media trolls 3 weeks ago to discredit the N-Power program backfired. We must devise measures to brand N-Power, Trader Moni and School Feeding as fraudulent and incompetent.

Tactics

* Opposition research to discredit him, his family, his faith and programs.

* Commission moles and other agents to dig up dirt on subject.

* Utilise the National Assembly to undertake series of investigations to discredit him and his programs (particularly the Social Investments Program).

* Create Core content for dissemination across channels which will include fake news and blown-up headlines to portray subject as corrupt

* Utilise our retained media to disseminate core content and messages in the next 6 weeks on mainstream, social media, WhatsApp and by SMS

* Send talking points to our spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.

* Attack all media protagonists/ influencers including the likes of Omojuwa, Ogundamisi, etc

* Enlist more social media influencers for this effort.

2. Brand President Buhari and the APC as an Islamist party- Brand him as nepotistic and divisive. The PDP has to ratchet up fake news about the herdsmen crisis as an islamisation tool. This will be meticulously distributed in the North Central, South West, South South and South East.

Tactics

* Research to create more fearful, threatening  and emotive narratives

* Create core content to include graphic videos and photographs to drive home the point

* Disseminate through church leadership, town union leadership, artisan and market associations leadership and other groups

* Utilise our retained media to disseminate core content and messages where appropriate.

* Send talking points to our spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.

3. Poverty versus Prosperity Narrative- We must subliminally convey that PDP allows things to flow within the economy while APC has locked up the system. A key message is to say abundance in the system is better than scarcity.  An aspect of this message is to say that corruption is not our main problem, rather it is the scarcity that APC has created.

Tactics

* Research to create more fearful economic narratives

* Create core content

* Disseminate through all media channels

* Disseminate through own union leadership, artisan and market associations leadership and other groups

* Utilise our retained media including influencers to disseminate core content and messages.

* Send talking points to our spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.

4. Claims of Infrastructure Completion- We must keep saying we started and had almost finished paying for all the infrastructure they are laying claim to.

Tactics

* Create core content

* Disseminate through our media channels

* Utilise our retained media to disseminate core content and messages

* Send talking points to our spokespeople and all PDP ambassadors on the subject.