A graphically violent video made by Cambridge Analytica to influence voters’ decision in the 2015 Presidential election in Nigeria has been released to the British parliament.
According to a report by the Guardian UK which said it is in possession of the vide, Cambridge Analytica sought to use the violent imagery to present Mohammadu Buhari, as a supporter of sharia law who would brutally suppress opposition and negotiate with extremists.
The paper noted that the report aligns with the testimony of the whistleblower Christopher Wylie to the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) select committee last week.
“(The video was distributed) in Nigeria with the sole intent of intimidating voters. It included content where people were being dismembered, where people having their throats cut and bled to death in a ditch. They were being burned alive. There was incredibly anti-Islamic, threatening messages portraying Muslims as violent,” Wylie testified.
He further disclosed that Cambridge Analytica directed AggregateIQ (AIQ), the Candian digital services firm that worked for Vote Leave during Britain’s EU referendum, to target voters with the video during the Nigerian presidential campaign.
The whistleblower has now handed over the material to British MPs.
In an earlier report, the Guardian revealed that Cambridge Analytica was hired by a Nigeria billionaire linked to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign at an estimated price of £2 million to unleash a ferocious campaign against Buhari. Notwithstanding, Jonathan became the first ever Nigerian leader to lose at the ballot box. There are no reports to suggest that Jonathan was aware of the covert operation.
“The anti-Buhari video imagines a future in which he is president and sharia law has been imposed,” the Guardian reports. “Coming to Nigeria on February 15th 2015,” the voiceover says in the manner of a trailer for a Hollywood movie. “Dark. Scary. And very uncertain. Sharia for all.” It poses the question: “What would Nigeria look like if sharia were imposed by Buhari?” It suggests he would strike a deal with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram that would be “a pact with the devil”. The video also suggests “Buhari will punish all who speak against the regime” and that “women will be veiled”. It ends by saying: “You can stop this movie becoming real.”
The Nigerian government says it has commenced investigation into possible hacking of President Buhari’s personal email account in 2015.
