“It Is One Of The Oldest Campaign Strategies Ever.” Nigerian, Ijeoma Chinonyerem, Says Of Banky W’s Voters Card Collection Situation

Ijeoma Chinonyerem is no stranger to Kito Diaries. She penned her thoughts regarding the LGBT activism during Ally Week, and as someone who is usually outspoken, she is speaking again – this time, regarding the situation a couple of weeks ago, when star singer and political hopeful, Banky W, was called out by a Nigerian woman, Peppy Chidinma Akaniro, over the manner in which he used his celebrity to get his voters card and for his celebrity friends, with no regard for those already in the queue.

In a Facebook post, Ijeoma is saying she believes it’s a political strategy and not at all a regular, just-another-day kind of encounter.

Check out her reasoning, and weigh in with your opinions in the comments section.

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Remember that time weeks ago when Banky W declared his political intentions and soon after, a lady called him out (quite respectfully, if I may add) for using his celebrity status to get his way with no regards for normal people?

Remember that?

Yea, I think it was well-staged campaign move.

Before you eat me, hollup.

Before you declare your political intentions public, you would have already hired a campaign manager. It is the job of your campaign manager to look for things that people would hold against you and neutralise the bad blood.

In Banky’s case, his campaign manager(s) didn’t have much clean up to do. He’s been in the public eye for over 10 years, and apart from that shameful tweet where he went back and forth with Wizkid, and which he subsequently denied and said his account was hacked, he is basically scandal-free.

The only grievance the public would have against him is the same they have with most celebrities, which is, taking advantage of their status to override laws.

A good campaign manager anticipates situations like this and rather than wait for a random, rude and uncouth person to bring it up, why not have someone bring it up in a calm, civil way and have your candidate be the bigger person and apologise perfectly?

This is one of the oldest campaign strategies everrrr!

As a former hype-man of all my male friends to their prospective beaus, I know these things.

It’s like knowingly telling your guy in front of a girl: “Guy, but you said you’re dating one Mmeso in ESUT wey dey burst your brain. Who this babe come be? You men no dey try.”

And having your guy reply, “Erm, IJ, this is na Mmeso o. She came for the weekend. No dey fall my hand na.”

And the Mmeso babe be grinning like a Cheshire cat and feeling like a queen without knowing it was planned.

In this case, Banky is the guy, IJ is the campaign manager-cum-call out lady, and the unsuspecting public is the Mmeso.

Well sha, I love Banky. I also love the amazing way his team handled this. This election period, campaign managers should step up their game. Anticipate pitfalls and handle them. That way, you control the narrative.

Moral of the story: Control the narrative in your BS before world people go use am shame you.