A video of President Goodluck Jonathan promising to “create unemployment” is trending in the cyberspace.
That video, approximately 15 seconds in length, may end up becoming the next-best Twitter/Facebook talking point ahead of the coming election, following in the shadows of the ‘statement of secondary school result’ released on Wednesday by Muhammadu Buhari’s school.
Jonathan was already talking when the video opened. Flanked by Namadi Sambo, his ever-loyal vice president, and other officials whose faces were not visible, the president says: “Let me just stop there. Since I’ve mentioned it, I’d try to be disciplined, to keep to the time.
“But let me assure Nigerian youths that we are going to create jobs; we are going to create unemployment…”
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The video, which was recorded on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), ends there. Apparently, the moment where the president spoke about creating unemployment was all the recorder needed.
THE ARGUMENTS
Within 19 hours of the posting of the video on Facebook, it received 29, 308 views. And with this increasing traction has come shades of argument on its authenticity and why anyone should take it seriously. Let’s attempt to group all the arguments into three: the supporting team, the opposing team, and the neutrals.
THE SUPPORTING TEAM
A video doesn’t lie, like the line in 9ice’s famous Gbamu Gbamu track: ireje o si ninu photo (no cheating in photo), as you pose na so you go show. This is not just a video; this is a video captured on NTA, the one television network never to side with a sitting president’s opponent. So it could never have been false.
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Tell this group that it was a ‘slip of tongue’ from Jonathan, just like Buhari slipped when he introduced his running mate, Yemi Osinbajo, as Yemi Osungbade, at a presidential rally, but they argue that the president has never managed to solve the nation’s unemployment woes, anyway, so no surprise if he says he would create more! Rigid team.
THE OPPOSING TEAM
This video is fake! Members of this team are cock sure. Two decades ago, they would not have questioned the veracity of the video. But this is the 21st century and advancing technological innovations continue to prove that nothing is now impossible. That video was doctored by Jonathan’s ‘political enemies’. Its recorder and distributors are people from the Buhari camp who are desperate to take attention off Buhari’s failure to provide his original certificate and instead resort to circulating a “forged” statement of result.
THE NEUTRALS
The video is real, they say. But they add: “So, what?”
Jonathan erroneously said he would create “unemployment” when he meant to say he would create “employment”. What’s the big deal? Everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect. No one is infallible. This video is another needless distraction from the more important issues relating to competence of the two leading presidential candidates.
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To toe the no-one-is-above-mistakes line is to inadvertently exonerate Buhari of his Osungbade blunder as well. To join the supporting team is to side with the opposition party and its candidate. Accepting the arguments of the opposing team is to campaign for the president’s re-election.
So, will the president come out again to tell us what exactly he wants to create: employment or unemployment? Anyone who doubts him afterwards is all out for mischief and should be dismissed with a wave of the hand.
7 comments
Jonathan has done nothing to unemployment in the last six years. He has said the truth. he will create more unemployment
This video is fake. Even if it is not, as someone has suggested it would have been a slip of tongue. It doesn’t add anything to the opposition campaign. The opposition seems to be in a forgery mode right now. There is nothing they will not do.
I had rated the cable highly and had followed it since it appeared. This kind of reporting is below what I expect from The,Cable. The management team please note.
Dear Mr. Malik, sorry to say, but your comment about this report being beneath what you’ve arrogantly come to expect of the cable smacks of deep-seated ignorance! No news site, not even the leading international news platforms, whether electronic, online or print, offers all gravitas without mixing in a little lightness. If you’re conversant with the New Yorker, then you’d probably have come across the Borowitz Report which approaches “serious” news items from a lighthearted, sarcastic and humorous angle. If you watch the CNN often, then you’d also have encountered one or more of Jeanie Moose’s simply hilarious twists to some of the major news headlines of the day. Rather than receiving the flak, Mr. Chidi Chima here and the cable should be given plaudits for their creativity and flexibility. Besides, it’s d freaking weekend! A little spice of lightness wouldn’t hurt!
I will not stoop to use unpleasant language. I don’t follow bandwagon. In the aftermath of #CharlieHebdo French satire magazine problems, I stood with the #Pope. The position taken by Pope Francis was not a very popular one. What did #The Cable aim to achieve?
malik lighten up haba …..if it is below what you expect there are plenty of other news sites you can stick to..not everything has political undertone sometimes we the masses want to release tension with these kind of stories
Thank u @ facts. I am a team player always. I lighten up when necessary. The Cable was partisan by their actions. It is a veiled way of campaigning against the incumbent. If a reader has raised it, it would be ok. Especially in the run up to major general elections. Hv a nice day @facts.