2023 Presidential Campaign Remains The Most Malicious I’ve Seen – Onanuga

Bayo Onanuga

President Bola Tinubu's Special adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has stated that the 2023 Presidential election campaign was the most malicious waged by opposition parties against his principal.

In an interview with Nigerian Tribune, Onanuga said the type of campaign the opposition parties ran was why President Tinubu won the election.

The presidential aide added that Tinubu’s victory was not based on his political strategy alone.

He said: “Let me say that I have been involved in national campaigns before but I have never witnessed the kind of campaigns we had, especially from the opposition against the person of President Tinubu. In fact, it was the most malicious campaign ever waged by the opposition against the candidate of the ruling party.

“That was why after Tinubu won, I said his election was the handiwork of God. The victory was not based on Tinubu’s political strategy alone and what have you. After the election, we thought the vicious campaign had ended, but to our chagrin, it has been intensified. They are still in attack mode.

“My belief is that in an election, one person must win. INEC declared Tinubu the winner, and he won fair and square. It was very clear he won. If it had been a two-horse race, and the opposition had combined forces, maybe he would have been beaten because everything was against him.”

Onanuga said Tinubu should have lost the election if the opposition had capitalised on the kinds of things done by some officials of the Muhammadu Buhari government that ought to have worked seriously against his principal.

He added: “Even though our candidate is a member of the ruling party, there were all kinds of things that some officials of the former government did that ought to have worked seriously against us, like the sudden currency change in an election year.

“We’ve been having fuel all over the country, and all of a sudden, we had fuel scarcity. The worst of the two was currency change. People were complaining everywhere. There was no money. Some people said they were paying as much as N20,000 to get N100,000. Nigerians were buying their own money.

“Public resentment built up against the APC and its presidential candidate. Things were so tough that even on election day, in many of our states, the party didn’t have money to pay agents.

“So, for me, it was God’s handiwork that made Bola Tinubu win the election, despite the mudslinging most especially from the Labour Party mob – those uncouth members of the so-called Obidient Movement.”