For those who followed the 2023 presidential election online campaigns on the microblogging app X (formerly called Twitter), one of the popular pro-Peter Obi propaganda handles was @PO_GrassRootM (with the profile name, Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization).
The @PO_GrassRootM account was run by a faceless handler. However, recent revelations published by an online medium The Trojan Beast has unmasked the face behind the handle. According to the medium, “Moses Eze operates the X account (PO_GrasrootM) and is linked to a potentially fraudulent NGO called Arise_NigerianY.”
Podium Reporters dug deeper and found out that the handle, @Arise_NigerianY (Arise Nigerian Youths) was created by Moses Eze in December 2020 ostensibly on the back of the 2020 #EndSARS uprising. Many peeps rode on the wave of the #EndSARS controversy to build an online followership.
Moses Eze positioned his @Arise_NigerianY as a civil society organisation seeking to mobilise Nigerian youths to demand for better governance in Nigeria. All through 2021, Moses Eze used this @Arise_NigerianY handle on twitter (now X) to push for various protests including #OccupyNass over electoral reforms by the 9th Assembly. He even went as far as publishing the phone numbers of then Senate President Ahmed Lawan and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and urging members of the public to harass them with calls and text messages.
However, the handle @Arise_NigerianY never quite got a reasonable online engagement as seen in the level of engagements of its posts in 2021.
From early 2022 when Peter Obi emerged as a popular presidential hopeful especially among the #EndSARS club of young Nigerians online, Moses Eze naturally started backing Mr. Peter Obi to cash in on Peter Obi’s growing online popularity. Eventually he changed the name of the handle to @PO_GrassRootM and transitioned to a full fledged Peter Obi propaganda handle.
@PO_GrassRootM became notorious for posting all manner of misinformation, fake news, cyber bullying, targeted harassment of judges, government officials or any individual who dare have a contrary opinion to Mr. Peter Obi.
On Instagram, Moses Eze’s Arise Nigerian Youth still has a handle called @arise_nigerianyouth and last made a post on January 2022, shortly before Moses Eze transitioned the CSO into a Peter Obi propaganda handle.
A scroll through the a Instagram rchives of @arise_nigerianyouth shows a clear link between some contents posted by @Arise_NigerianY (later @PO_GrassRootM) on twitter between 2021 and early 2022. In fact, Moses Eze moderated one twitter space on 22nd July 2021 to interview a PDP Delta House of Assembly aspirant, Hon. Oke Umurhohwo hosted by the @Arise_NigerianY Twitter handle.
This is the clearest link between Moses Eze, @Arise_NigerianY and @PO_GrassRootM. It is therefore obvious that the moment Moses Eze found out that the Peter Obi bandwagon was good for his online growth, he delved in without looking back and tried to create a niche as Peter Obi’s foremost online mobilisation and propaganda platform.
This leap from a CSO to a politician’s propaganda channel exposes the fraudulent nature of many so-called CSOs. Arise Nigerian Youths was not registered as a CSO in Nigeria but tried to position itself as such and was allegedly in the business of organising protests and soliciting for financial support to carry out its “CSO duties”.
In fact on 2nd September, 2021 @PO_GrassRootM posted that Arise Nigerian Youths were calling for an Igbo Presidency.
