“You can remove billboards, but you can’t remove all eyes on judiciary”, says Atiku’s aide  

Phrank Shaibu, the Special Assistant on Public Communications to Atiku Abubakar, has criticised the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) for pulling down the billboard advert with the text, “All Eyes on The Judiciary.”

According to a statement on Tuesday, Shuaibu described the actions of ARCON as a clear testament that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is authoritarian and an assault on freedom of speech.

Shaibu said the entire incident reinforced the argument that election cases in court ought to be completed before beneficiaries of questionable elections are inaugurated. He wondered how a message like: “All Eyes on the Judiciary” would translate to a threat to society.

Shuaibu said: “The basic principle of social justice is about the people. The advertisers of the billboards only did what the norm is in civilized climes. It was the agents working to impress an interest that read meanings to that innocuous advert. Otherwise, it is a basic principle that eyes must be on the wheel of justice.

Eyes must naturally be on the wheel of justice because when justice is delivered, it must be ‘seen’ to have been just! In any case, both Tinubu and the APC are before the same court. It is curious how they find this particular message upsetting. Anyway, even if they pull down the billboards, they can never stop all eyes from being on the judiciary at this historic time.”

He said ARCON had already begun acting like the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA) which had built a reputation of denying Nigerians the right to carry adverts which the Lagos State government deemed “unfavourable”.

Atiku’s aide said: “Tinubu has, once again, put his dictatorial tendency on public display. How has a simple message that says “all eyes are on the judiciary” suddenly become offensive? This is a clear case of abuse of office and reinforces the argument that court cases ought to be concluded before inauguration so that beneficiaries of fraudulent elections would not be able to manipulate the system in their favour.

“Nigerians can now see what the people of Lagos have been facing all these years where LASAA denies the opposition the use of billboards just to please their master. It has become so bad that Tinubu’s son is the one that has exclusive rights to billboards on the Lekki axis. Who can forget that the company where Tinubu’s son enjoys commanding heights admitted to turning off the billboard lights during the #ENDSARS protests? And the only ridiculous explanation for such a dastardly act is that it wasn’t in bad faith.”