GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello of Kogi state,
Wednesday night told President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives
Congress, APC, to get ready for aggressive marketing of the President and the
party, declaring that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would not
be a push over in the 2019 general elections.
Governor Bello who stated this when
President Buhari hosted a dinner for youth political appointees at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja, warned the APC against complacency, saying that
opposition should not be taken for granted if the APC should win the election.
But the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha has said that the PDP in its 16 years did
not do one tenth of what the APC has done in the past three and half years,
adding that the ruling party went to the 2015 election with promises but will
be going with its score card in the 2019 elections. The Kogi State Governor
said though the President remained the best leader for the country till 2023,
the issue of perception was one that must be taken seriously by the APC to
ensure that no chance was given to the opposition to return to power. He said
the task before the APC was to convince the masses of all Mr. President had
done for Nigerians. According to him, “A good product sells itself and Mr.
President is a very good product. And his competence is definitely needed for
the progress of this nation. But we need to go out there and sale him to the
people. “Public Relations practitioners will tell you that at some point,
having a good product without excellent advertising is a winking in the dark.
You know what you are doing but no one else does. Perception is reality but
when it comes to politics and campaigning, perception management is therefore
critical in a time like this. “We must market the incredible accomplishment of
Mr. President and of his administration to every voter and in a language he or
she understands. If we fail, God forbids, the adverse narrative being put out
by the PDP and other propaganda machine will dominate the land and shape
perception. “If we don’t market our product very well, a tough and progressive
victory against a terrorist threat which continues to cost the lives of our
brave military and law enforcement agencies will be mistaken for inactions. “If
we don’t market our product very well, try our political exposed offenders
using long extant laws which previous leaders were not willing to deploy
against cronies, accomplishes will be mistaken extra-judicial measures and
disdain for the rule of law. “If we do not put Mr. President’s achievements
before our people so that they can sight it themselves, we will be agreeing
with the PDP that in fighting corruption which he is offering again is somehow
better than the alleged incompetence of the APC which has accomplished
everything I have enumerated above. “In summary, all may be lost if we don’t
get Nigerian people to see why they must vote and allow Mr President continue
his great work as we go to the poll in 2019. “All that the crooked PDP is offering
Nigerians is that corruption is better than incompetence in quote. 2015 was
about change, 2019 will be about progress. “As members of the APC, we will not
deny that our party has a huge task in the 2019 general elections, the election
will never be a walk-over and the PDP will not be a push over. “And we must
take nothing and no one for granted. If we cannot defeat PDP, maybe we should
not be influencers or we should not even go to politics.” Also speaking,
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha, said that
the PDP didn’t achieve one-tenth of APC achievements in its sixteen years at
the helm of affairs. He said, “As a Government arm, we have achieved so much
and I am going to make available to you a document that we have put together,
which captures what the government has been able to achieve in just about two
and half years, what I called a midterm report.