By Uche Nworah
Recently in a Public Relations class I teach, it was Marie’s turn to discuss contemporary public relations and marketing communications issues from around the globe. The students usually trawl various publications and websites in their search for the week’s breaking news in marketing communications, and have in the past found brandrepublic.com, mediaguardian.co.uk, campaign, pr week, and brandchannel.com very useful.
Marie zeroed in on the McCanns; she informed the class that they have recently hired Clarence Mitchell, a former BBC reporter as a full time PR consultant. The McCanns were tired of the bad press they have been receiving and desperately wanted to turn the negatives into positives. The class afterwards debated on the pros and cons of the current strategy adopted by the McCanns as they attempt to fight it out in the court of public opinion whose sympathy over the disappearance of their daughter – Madeleine is gradually melting away like the Baltic snow, especially with the McCanns being officially classified as suspects (Aguido) by the Portuguese police in the case involving the disappearance of their daughter. This was a little after a debate had raged on a Nigerian internet website – www.nigeriavillagesquare.com concerning Andy Uba and his recent move to get the Supreme Court of Nigeria to upturn their earlier judgement and reinstate him as governor of Anambra state.
It all started with Okey Ndibe whose piece titled My Vote for Andy Uba elicited a response from the Uba camp. Their response came in the form of two essays respectively titled Okey Ndibe on Andy Uba written by Jerome Azubuko, and Apogee of Hate by Okey Ndibe written by Chuka Nwosu, Ex-Director of Public Affairs of the Andy Uba Campaign Organisation (AUCO).
Okey Ndibe countered the Uba camp’s arguments with a tongue-in-cheek essay aptly titled My poor pulverized self. Other interested parties have also joined in the fray. Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe who runs the website www.ukpakareports.com wrote a piece titled – Andy Uba & Okey Ndibe’s activism in which he wondered why Okey Ndibe dwells so much on the Andy Uba issue to the neglect of other issues affecting indigenes of his native Amawbia town and Anambra state in general. In turn, Rudolph Okonkwo accused Ikenna of selling out in a piece titled Understanding the likes of Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe. Ikenna countered in another piece – Andy Uba has not bought me and I have not sold out!.
Ikenna received another bashing from the wordsmith Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh in Okey Ndibe versus the Clique of Renegades, followed by another thumping at the hands of Chidi Anyaeche in a piece titled Still on "The Paid Distraction Named Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe". Mr Anyaeche had previously written a scathing article titled – Exit of the Orange Juice Governor when Anambra state’s governor Peter Obi received the sack from the state House of Assembly before he was eventually reinstated by the Supreme Court in the landmark judgement. Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye of the Daily Independent newspaper went a step further and called time on his articles being posted on Ikenna’s Ukpakareports.com, he also instructed that his previous articles should be yanked off the website.
This public spat of ‘toing and froing’ between what one may now describe as the Ndibe camp (‘the good guys’) and the Uba camp (‘the bad guys’) have continued with subsequent articles written by the different parties to the raging debates. Lately, it was Chuka Nwosu who published Ndibe's Fatalism versus Iwu's Realism still harping on Okey Ndibe’s ‘obsession’ with everything Andy Uba.
There is no longer any doubt that the fight for the soul of Anambra state has since left the battle ground itself (Anambra state) and has now shifted to newspaper pages and internet websites. Also, the Supreme Court appears not to be the central focus point anymore, the court of public opinion now is. Perhaps there are lessons to be learnt by Nigerian politicians from the Andy Uba saga. Being that the most important trial in election disputes is in the court of public opinion, therefore it is important that Nigerian politicians should be prepared and learn how to navigate the communication minefields that the internet and traditional media present.
I have found the whole unending Andy Uba saga fascinating since it appears that no other politician in Nigeria’s recent history except Mr Uba’s former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo has been so derided, mocked, hated, misunderstood and debated on Nigerian newspaper pages and on internet websites. From my personal perspective as a communications scholar and teacher, one could see that clearly the Andy Uba story divorced from the usual spiritual and moral preachments raises some interesting communication issues. I chose to leave the former to those more pious to pontificate and therefore decided to introduce Andy Uba into one of my lectures.
I started the lecture by running off a 10 – minute background commentary and told the students who Mr Uba is; what he wants and what Nigerians know about him based on what the media write about him. I told them to think of him as a PR client, but one with a huge baggage (he is considered public enemy number one in some quarters); I equally reminded them that such baggage is deeply compensated by the huge war chest available to the client (supposedly). I then asked them to play the role of Max Clifford (the doyen of UK public relations practice) in Uba’s case.
The class was split into 4 groups and told that based on the assumed wealth of the ‘client’ (Andy Uba); budget would not be a problem. From the initial brief I gave them, I told the class to come up with a PR plan for the ‘client’ that will help achieve three core objectives.
- Media relations: manage the media (traditional and online channels) and win sympathy for the client amongst various stakeholders
- Re-position the client as a trusted, loving family man with traditional values with the aim of appealing to Anambra people (primary target audience), and other Nigerians (secondary target audience).
- Win the client support and sympathy in the court of public opinion
Being that they were only just briefed and not knowing the other details and circumstances of the case, including the peculiar nature of Nigerian politics, I was on standby to support the groups as they tried to bounce off ideas, helping them fill some missing information gaps where necessary. This included filling the students in on OBJ, Third term, Chris Uba, Okey Ndibe, Sahara Reporters, NigeriaVillageSquare.com, Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe, Larita Mabbington, PDP etc.
As the students progressed on with their Andy Uba PR plans, it was well obvious to me that my original lecture plan was well out of the window. There was no way we were going to get all I had planned done in 2 and half hours, especially with the introduction of the unplanned Andy Uba case study.
After about 20 minutes, I had to move the class on for pace and prompted the groups to round up their discussions in readiness for sharing their ideas with the rest of the class. The class buzzed with ideas. Group A tagged their campaign Project Andy Uba. Group B called theirs Emerald (didn’t say why when I asked them). Group C were more academic reeling off a long header. Group D had no title and when prompted decided to also adopt Project Andy Uba.
Unanimously all the groups agreed that the client is ‘damaged’ goods. Group C however attempted to argue a strong case that in PR terms, it is better to be considered a damaged good than a ‘finished’ or ‘expired’ good. Their reason being that damaged goods could be fixed or mended. I chuckled and knew that if Andy Uba was in the room, he would really be pleased at the life line.
I asked the groups if in reality, they would love to work for such a client. Again, a strong YES echoed from the class. Which PR consultant in his right mind would turn down such a lucrative account they wondered. Quirkily, Frances, the blonde who normally sits at the back of the class said that all politicians were the same anyway, he called them liars. She reminded the class of Tony Blair and George Bush and their former spin doctor Alistair Campbell who went to war in Iraq on the evidence of a ‘sexed up’ dossier on Iraq and Saddam Hussain. “Nigerian politicians will not be any different” she concluded.
The students did provide lots of insight during their presentations. Group B felt that Andy Uba should be his best PR spokesman. (I had told them of Mr. Uba’s penchant for shying away from the media, many Nigerians particularly those that condemn him have never heard him speak), they argued that he should tour the talk show circuits and morning news programmes to engage in discussions on economic and political importance. “He may just be able redeem himself, better than any minder could do for him”, they concluded.
I particularly liked Group C’s presentation. This 5 – man team which comprised of 3 male students and 2 females appeared very hot-headed, a bit radical in their approach. If we were to judge a book by its cover, I could tell that they would make good Whitehall spin-doctors in the future. Perhaps, the phrase, ‘no spin zone’ meant nothing to them. They were all for the ‘client’ turning the table against even his supposed ‘master’- OBJ.
Using third parties; they argued that it was possible to plant stories in the media through sponsored hacks and leak incriminating information to the media concerning the former president (Obasanjo) and his top aides. Such a strategy should easily swallow his ‘petty crime’ of transporting the sum of $175,000 aboard the presidential jet. To some extent I saw some sense in their argument, since politics is a game of survival; politicians have in the past adopted some underhand tactics to stay afloat. Andy Uba will not be the first to adopt such a strategy. But the flip side is that this may backfire, if the stories were to be traced back to him, or his camp, then he will be toast.
Group D’s presentation bothered mainly on morality and ethics, virtues that I reminded the students were scarce commodities in the Nigerian political terrain. They were full of ideals advocating for Andy Uba to come clean and ask for the people’s forgiveness, they reasoned that that may win him sympathy and the votes he so much craves. I disagreed with this group and told them that such a strategy could be likened to Mr Uba committing political suicide. Not even in America or the United Kingdom, where we imported our own brand of democracy from do politicians own up to their sins. I reminded them that even Bill Clinton, the golden boy of American politics lied his way till the end during the Monica Lewinsky scandal with his famous line – “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”.
Considering the limited time and information at their disposal, I felt that the students did very well, some of them showed additional interest and wished to be informed of further breaking news in the Andy Uba story. I have so far brought to their attention a recent publication on Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe’s ukpakareprts.com website – How Obasanjo Met Andy Uba, and Rudolph Okonkwo’s publication on the kwenu.com website titled – Andy Uba: Restating the nature of the Evil.
Perhaps the main beneficiary from the whole Andy Uba saga has been the incumbent governor, Mr Peter Obi, whose well documented democratic travails has made him a favourite amongst the gods and the people. Mr Obi’s current political status may be likened to that of an untouchable or scared cow as any attempts at critiscms of his government’s lack lustre style and approach is visited with harsh rebukes from people of whom dissenting views represent signs of a sell-out.
While the battle for the control of the soul and purse of Anambra state carries on, it still has to be said that it is Ndi Anambra that are worse for it as their lot has not yet improved one bit whether under Andy Uba’s brief tenure or Peter Obi’s chequered and gods – ordained 1st and 2nd tours of duty. There does not seem to be any concerted efforts at improving the lot of the common man on the street and in the many villages of Anambra state, this bigger tragedy I think should the focus of well meaning Anambrarians and friends of Anambra state, rather than the present voyeuristic interest and focus on the state by the so – called concerned observers.
Uche Nworah wrote from the United Kingdom
