Establishments, with reference to this article, should be understood to mean governments and their various agencies as well as corporate institutions and organisations, public or private. Like astute public relations officers, establishments’ spin doctors execute programmes of actions to enhance public understanding and acceptance of the institution they serve. They try not only to win the goodwill and patronage of people and customers by various means of expressions and communications, but, like diplomats, they also do some image laundering. Spin doctors are not only astute propagandists and channels of expression and information, but they also fix things up to calm tempers and repair damages.
However, the disturbing aspects of spin doctors’ activities have to do with the crafting of disinformation and diversionary strategies for the purpose of “saving faces” and heads. Thus, activities of spin doctors come within he domain of doing some advocacies for dark operators and cabals, defending obviously indefensible issues. Dangerous as such activities and advocacies turn out to be at the end of the day, those who engage in them usually have some protections, including operating as faceless agents as well as some legal or establishment’s immunity. We’ve heard some people being addressed as “kill and go” (which they do!).
Sometimes those used for such “dirty jobs” are helpless people compelled to engage in such services not voluntarily or with their normal consciousness, but as a pay-back for freedom from some deadly hooks. Prisoners of war, enemy agents captured for spying and some hardened criminals have been known to be used for dirty establishments’ jobs. Some may succeed and be compensated thereafter, many die in the process, but the practice is a form of death sentence.
Often such suicide operators are administered some drugs, placed under hypnosis or programmed and groomed for the purposes they have to serve. These are no conventional or legally appropriate practices and so, they are usually shrouded in utmost secrecy, such that no record or evidence can be available for any inquisitive one to hold on to.
The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America since the end of the 2nd World War undertook a project with code name MKULTRA, for the purpose of mind control. Any reader who wants to pursue this matter further can find shocking details in Walter Bowart’s book, Operation Mind Control. It would be difficult to find a copy, as it would be difficult to find evidence of wrong-doing in spin doctors’ operations.
Establishments usually run a “cryptocracy” or secret and parallel government within government, and spin doctors are trained and equipped to do damage – control operations. No operator would dare divulge official secrets even if it means paying the supreme sacrifice, if needs be! They can make you believe that black is white or white black!
“Serve with loyalty or perish” was not only demanded by monarchs in olden days, but that policy as a part of the oath of office, is still there in the modern times. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Pericles and other plays, we find ample wisdom of how spin doctors operate and how true it is that: “you fear the tyrant, who either by public war or private treason, will take away your life.” After “Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain” spin doctors were summoned to fix up the mess so that “poisoned shot, may miss our name, and hit the woundless air.” What may appear as mere play often depict realities which are presented as plays, to unmask monsters and amuse people.
With reference to Nigeria and our experiences in the recent past, activities of spin doctors have tended to be brazier, with little or no spices of diplomacy. From brain-washing to image-laundering and damage-control, spin doctors’ activities cannot be successful if brazen bamboozlement and mendacity are not padded with sweet-smelling perfumes and the balm of Gilead. People are often wiser than spin doctors presume them to be, and even the most astute and loyal propagandists and spin doctors of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, did not get away with their antics. The ploy to evade, cover up or white-wash sensitive issues rather than address them, however intimidating they may be, rarely promote the survival of establishments which use the services of extremist spin doctors.
We began to have some glimpse of the activities of spin doctors and their sponsors in Nigeria many years ago when late Senator Francis Ellah tried to present his Unfinished Motion. That motion which was nipped in the bud through shouting him down on the floor of the Senate, sought to point to the fact that a “War Indemnity” or penalty was cleverly being imposed upon certain sections of the country, despite the “no-victor-no-vanquished” propaganda. Not many Nigerians knew why Francis Ellah, a great man of integrity and moral principles, resigned from the Senate. Activities of establishment spin doctors are becoming more brazen, audacious and quite disturbing in the recent times.

Amirize, is a retired lecturer from Rivers State University email:bamirize @yahoo.com

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