APC, Nigeria in critical phase – Oyegun

The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has charged APC publicity secretaries in the country to take their jobs more serious for more effectiveness at this critical period of the nation’s history to express the ideals of effective communication and the gains of the APC led government.

Oyegun also said as the party is trying to get people to key into the vision of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the party is however not working towards having a one-party state.

Speaking at the party’s two days external Communication workshop for state publicity Secretaries at the Newton Park Hotel in Abuja, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun said; “Now that we are no longer in the opposition but have formed the government at the federal level and in 24 states, and are still going for more, there is more work to be done.

“We are not trying to create a one-party state, but we need to sell our programs and vision to our people even with greater vigor.

We need to convince them to support the policies and programs of the Federal Government led by President Buhari.

We need to properly articulate the achievements of our respective state governments and sell the programs of our party to the people.”
He urged the participants to continue to project the party in positive light.

In his earlier remarks, the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Bolaji Abdullahi urged the spokesmen to change their style from being spokespersons of the opposition to being spokespersons of the ruling party saying, “I recall when we got elected, my frequent thinking was how I hoped to step into Lai Mohammed’s big shoes.

“My answer was that Lai Mohammed was a great General of our Party in the time of war and he did an excellent job.

And we will count his victories by the many territories he helped the Party to conquer. But I am brought in as a peace time General. My mandate is therefore different. I will probably be judged by how many friends we are able to make.

“The Party at the national level has benefited from this transition by changing communication leadership at the national level from wartime to peace. In majority of our states, it is the same people that led the communication during the election that are still there now that the elections are over.

It is therefore important for us to recognise the critical challenge in making that transition between how we handled party communication in the time of war which is election and how we handle party communication when you form government.”

The Country Director of the International Republican Institute, Mr Sentell Barnes in his contribution said the report of an IRI Political Party Assessment conducted after the 2015 general election suggests that only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC have clearly separated the responsibilities for internal and external communication; while none of the parties have a written communication plan and strategy.

“In as much as the report observed that political parties are resorting to the use of new media platforms over and above the traditional media channels, it is interesting to note that none of the party reviews the content of its website to reflect its ideology, aims or address strategic party issues”, he added.