By Maroof Asudemade
Some members of the PDP and their sympathisers in Oyo State have been sharing in gleeful mockery branded sachets of alcohol drinks sponsored by a vibrant grassroots politician and a well-intentioned partyman of the APC stock, Hon Adams Yusuf.
Hon Adams Yusuf sponsored the branded sachets of alcohol drinks as souvenirs to support the electioneering of Hon Wale Murphy Olatunji, the Ibadan North Rep candidate in the forthcoming By-election. When Oyo PDP could not find any negative reports to use to campaign against APC and its Rep candidate, they resorted to using something mundane to launch a campaign of calumny against the popular APC Rep candidate.
What’s wrong in branding sachets of alcoholic drinks to distribute as souvenirs to those voters who drink the substance? Are PDP the members and their sympathisers saying those who drink alcoholic drinks are louts? Or that the sachets of alcoholic drinks are drinks for louts and never-do-wells? What’s exceedingly specious about the whole thing is that many of those condemning the alcoholic souvenirs line their pockets with sachets of dry gin like sweets and gulp them with reckless abandon. Why the pretence? The same PDP that would drive a truckload of sachets of dry gin to campaign ground for their members and supporters!
What have political parties, including PDP, not branded as souvenirs? They brand sugar in nylon packs. They brand salt in nylon packs. They brand combination of garri, groundnut and sugar in nylon packs? Oyo PDP had once branded cigarette lighters and distributed to voters who smoked cigarettes. These are regular items that political parties brand to distribute as souvenirs to attract voters. This is the reason Hon Adams Yusuf should be commended for his creativity in branding the sachets of alcoholic drinks as souvenirs to support our Rep candidate for Ibadan North Byeelection coming up this Saturday.
Supporters and sympathisers of PDP should find another negative things to criticise APC on. There’s nothing negative about branding sachets of alcoholic drinks as political souvenirs. Oyo State under the administration of Seyi Makinde of the the PDP receives more VAT from alcoholic products, especially the sachet dry gin, than any other products. And this is the same revenue-bringing products that the PDP supporters and sympathisers are condemning. Are these people thinking right at all? To say that a VAT generating product is bad for political souvenirs is a climax of folly.
