NIGERIA-ELECTION/JONATHAN Goodluck Jonathan election campaign tarnished by controversial Twitter slogan

Record ID: 236863

  • Title: NIGERIA-ELECTION/JONATHAN Goodluck Jonathan election campaign tarnished by controversial Twitter slogan
  • Date: 10th September 2014
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF LAPTOP SCREEN SHOWING TWITTER RESULTS FOR "BRING BACK GOODLUCK 2015" HASHTAG ON TWITTER WEB PAGE READING (English): "PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN REACTS TO 2015 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN POSTERS IN ABUJA" WEB PAGE SHOWING PHOTOGRAPHS OF JONATHAN CAMPAIGN POSTERS VARIOUS OF LAPTOP SCREEN SHOWING TWITTER RESULTS FOR "BRING BACK GOODLUCK 2015" HASHTAG ON TWITTER
  • Embargoed: 25th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9GU8TJY2VZB2GQYEQ81CZ676D
  • Story Text: Nigerians on Wednesday (September 10) strongly condemned the use of "Bring Back Goodluck 2015" on the signs and banners of President Jonathan's re-election campaign which flooded the streets on the country's capital earlier this week.
    The slogan, which shared similarities with the Bring Back Our Girls hashtag calling for over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist sect Boko Haram in April, is being criticised for its lack of sensitivity to the plight of the girls who are still being held captive.
    Nigeria's president on Wednesday ordered all banners and signs with the slogan be brought down immediately and claimed he had no prior knowledge it and had not approved it.
    Many Nigerians took to social media website Twitter to express their disdain at the actions of President Jonathan's supporters using the hashtag "BringBackGoodluck2015".
    Abuja resident I.K Madubuko said he considers it insulting but commended the president for requesting that the banners and posters be removed.
    "I feel it in bad taste for people to use that. "Bring back our girls" - it is very, very sensitive. I think it is immature to use that as a campaign slogan. We must commend the president for acknowledging this and condemning those who use this hashtag for campaign purposes. He has done well, although a bit late, but he has done well," Madubuko said.
    At the Bring Back Our Girls protest in Abuja, the protesters who have met for daily sit-in protests to call for the safe rescue of the girls also expressed their dissatisfaction with the development.
    "I think it's inappropriate, most insensitive given that the girls have not been rescued and it shows that the people in the country who are in a position of responsibility and governance have really lost their humanity that they will allow such a thing to take place," director of the International Institute Of Journalism, Shehu Usman, said.
    "Now it has taken an article in the Washington Post and the virtual condemnation on cyber space for the government to do the needful. This should not have happened in the first place and it just shows the inept leadership that we have in the country. An insensitive leadership that we have in the country and this action now amounts to deceitfulness," Usman added.
    Nigerian ground forces backed by warplanes on Tuesday battled Islamist Boko Haram militants in a second day of heavy fighting around a northeast town, in which the officer son of former president Olusegun Obasanjo was wounded, a senior official said.
    Since the weekend, the government of Africa's biggest economy has sent in reinforcements to check a push southwards into northern Adamawa state by Boko Haram, which has seized towns and territory in the northeast in recent weeks.
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