From Juliana Taiwo-Obalaonye, Abuja
Charles Okigbo is the founding Registrar of Advertising Practitioner Council of Nigeria (APCON), and professor emeritus of Strategic Communication at the North Dakota State University, United States.
The consummate teacher, researcher, and PR professional in this interview with Sunday Sun spoke on the ongoing 2023 election campaigns process, how the leading political parties have brought key issues such as security, economy, national integration and youth engagement to the front burner, as well as how the regulatory environment for public relations in Nigeria can be reformed. Excepts:
What is your assessment of the current political campaigns ahead of the 2023 elections?
Members of the communication research community in Nigeria have been interested in conducting evidence-based analyses of election campaign communications in the last three decades, and the results show that election communication is taken seriously by politicians and their political parties because to a large extent, the campaign is quintessentially, strategic communication. The 2023 election cycle is not different. The three major parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the People Democratic Party (PDP), and the Labour Party (LP) are serious with their communication efforts, and are scoring big points with their bases. As expected in such public communication efforts, there are some gaps and lapses, which I attribute to the usual constraints in strategic communication planning and execution. I believe that the parties are reviewing their performance even as the campaigns unfold (i.e., formative evaluation) and will conduct more comprehensive assessments at the end (i.e, summative evaluation).
As a professional communicator, do you think the political actors especially, the leading presidential candidates, are communicating enough with Nigerians about their programmes?
Yes, the political candidates and their communication directors are communicating adequately with the electorate, especially their bases. The three parties have produced impressive manifestos or platforms, which are elaborate explanations of their understanding of the main issues of the moment. In many cases, they all see the same problems – national security, the economy, corruption, the structure of government, education. agricultural production, and our perception in the eyes of the world. They may call them different names, but the diagnoses are all similar. Although there are occasional distractions from a steady focus on the issues and problems, all in all, they have not lost sight of the reasons they want to be our political leaders. The most important reason is to help us address our pressing problems of the day. Expectedly, campaigns should not always be about serious issues and social problems. In the literature, there is considerable attention paid by researchers to “non-issues” or “horse race” in campaign communication. The unfolding 2023 campaigns provide some entertaining spectacles that are not necessarily on issues, but are important all the same.
What should be the focus of the messages by the different political platforms in Nigeria, given the existential issues of conflicts, insecurity, insurgency, and agitations across the various parts of the country?
Campaign messaging in this election should be varied because we expect different strategies from the parties. The PDP should focus on messages that show it can do better than the party in government now (APC), and point to its past achievements under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan. The APC is facing a serious challenge because of the widespread perception that the last eight years have been disastrous. Nevertheless, it must direct our attention to the unappreciated and unsung achievements, which indeed are many, if we take the time to count them. LP is in a campaign manager’s paradise because it appears to be the darling of the youths and marginalised groups, which are many. The Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi is a promoter’s dream, and win or lose on February 25, he has positioned the Labour Party to lead young voters to see the unimagined possibilities in aiming for change and a new direction in governance.
What role do you think the media as an institution should play in building national cohesion in an election season?
The media’s roles in building national cohesion include one, providing accurate information on success stories of national cohesion; it is not all tragic, there are some success stories of successful inter-tribal, inter-religious, inter-regional marriages and partnerships. Secondly, serving as a reliable warning system that alerts us of the dangers of unchecked divisive tendencies. Thirdly, holding politicians and their parties accountable for their careless utterances and dangerous messages to their followers. Words (careless utterances and threats) have consequences. Fourthly, conscience of the public!
A few days ago, you convened a Special Virtual Engagement on the 2023 Presidential Election Campaigns with the theme: “Review of the use of public relations strategies, tactics, and methods in the 2023 presidential campaigns”, what inspired you to embark on that initiative?
The 2023 election cycle is unlike any other in the history of the country in that we now have three viable political parties with very strong candidates for the presidency. The race is so close today that both statistical and qualitative analysts cannot comfortably predict a winner, although many independent observers believe that the Labour Party has the best chance. As teachers of communication research and practitioners of strategic communication, my friends and I owe a duty to ourselves and the nation to understand how communication – especially Public Relations – is being used in the unfolding election. For decades, we have engaged in serious research about communication and election campaigns in Nigeria, but at no time in the past did we ever see politicians and political parties devote more attention to explaining their positions to the electorate. We have eight research teams that are examining various aspects of the uses of media and communication in this election. The PR team is one of the strongest and working with Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has further strengthened our conviction that PR practice and research will take center stage in our current presidential election campaign.
Do you think the current spokespersons of the political parties are helping to stabilise the fragile political environment in Nigeria?
Most of the current spokespersons are party stalwarts and not professional communicators. The political parties, including the Labour Party, limited their choices of spokespersons to their circle of friends and associates, instead of reaching out to the best communication practitioners who understand the value of evidence-based strategic communication planning, implementation, and evaluation of performance, formatively and summatively. Not surprisingly, we have seen more trading of insults and baseless accusations than we expected. Communication in Nigeria, especially in this era of social media, has become an all-comers profession, which is not the spirit of the legislation that set up Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), now Advertising Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and NIPR.
Do you think having people with requisite training and experience would have stabilised the system better than an all comers affairs we have currently?
Yes, definitely. Communication is a profession that takes more than just stringing words together and playing soundbites. Even in the old British system that did not require certification, communication practitioners worked through the ranks up to the top. With the American system which adores formal education and certificates, there is a tendency to balance book knowledge with field experience. Here in Nigeria, we seem to have elected, by default, to be neither British nor American, which is detrimental to our practice, especially with regard to directing election communication. This is adding to our many failures in diverse areas of public life in Nigeria today, where we have lowered our standards and expectations of different professions.
How do you think an appropriate regulatory environment of PR practice in Nigeria can be sustained?
There is no substitute for an enlightened and professionally oriented regulatory environment in communication, in all its aspects and ramifications. These are the exact words of the original APCON decree which empowered the Council to control advertising in “all its aspects and ramifications,” which include education, training, capacity building, and regulation, among others. Appropriate regulation must start with well-thought-out educational and capacity-building designs because ignorance is a fatal disease. Regulation is best achieved through persuasion and not coercion. Fortunately, the new leadership team at NIPR are on course to improve PR education and practice through good examples and the promotion of enlightened followership.
What are the experiences in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada and how can Nigeria benefit from them?
The NIPR and many other organs of public communication in Nigeria can benefit from the experiences of older countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, where public communication is given pride of place by governments, businesses, non-profit organisations, and various sections of the populace. Our over-emphasis of politicisation and partisanisation must be checked by encouraging communication professionals to embrace the ethics of fairness and objectivity. Nigerian communication teachers and practitioners in the Diaspora have a responsibility to collaborate more closely with their compatriots at home in the interests of the profession and the nation.