How TAN, BSO Won Accounts To Brand Jonathan, Buhari by Leadership News All is almost set for the 2015 presidential elections – at least, on the part of the contestants, President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari – as the campaigns reach a frenzy and inch for a dramatic climax. However, it is all due to the tenacity of a number of factors, chief of which is the phenomenal branding which has been undertaken by a number of groups and individuals towards making their preferred candidates worthy of any form attention. ANDREW ESSIEN writes on the roles of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) and the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO), how they got the nod and the amount of work which they have invested in the rebranding of brands Jonathan and Buhari, respectively. Prior to and after the presidential primaries that saw President Goodluck Jonathan and General Buhari become the presidential flag-bearers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s political landscape witnessed the massive activities of various groups which had crystallised into the Presidential Campaign Organisation (PCO) for the PDP and Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) for the APC, criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country to garner support for the aspirants. For the PDP, the most outstanding of these groups has been the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), allegedly convened by business mogul and the chief executive officer of Capital Oil, Ifeanyi Ubah. The group began with billboards and subtle adverts which, inevitably, got them the attention of Nigerians. Its activities progressed to television adverts and radio jingles promoting the achievements of the Jonathan administration; education, economic rebasing, the fight against corruption, health, sports and as many as they could rope together. In no time, everyone got to know TAN and its agenda – to ensure the return of Jonathan for a second term. Tongues began to wag that Ubah was trying to woo the government into returning his company’s seized license (after it was revealed that the company had been involved in some subsidy-related issues). In no time, though, the license was released. However, TAN forged ahead and it became clearer as the days progressed that the group was ahead of others, as far as the tussle to get the ‘contract’ to ‘rebrand’ Jonathan for 2015 was concerned. Every other pro-Jonathan group was just trying to keep up. While everyone was waiting for the president to declare to run for office again, the TAN had taken to the media, both traditional and ‘new’, to convince the president that it meant business. The only thing TAN did not do, to least in the open, was to say the president had given his word that he would run for a second term. The TAN took its game a notch higher by holding rallies in all the geo-political zones of the country; Southeast, Southwest, South-South, North-Central and the FCT to sell its agenda and get 17 million signatures of Nigerians who want the president to run for office for a second time. They got the country talking and nearly infected everyone with their zeal and energy. Matter of fact, the country was caught up in the TAN frenzy, as they promoted Jonathan as “the panacea to the years of bad leadership the country has witnessed over the years”. It harped its campaign on the fact that Brand Jonathan is a democrat and allows the people’s will to prevail in elections, citing the governorship elections in Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Ekiti and, most recently, Osun – notwithstanding what political experts have described as it being militarised – as cases in point. All the pro-Jonathan groups have been dissolved to form the Presidential Campaign Organisation (PCO), but the TAN has sworn to continue the promotion of Brand Jonathan – a project which has been impressive, to say the least – beyond the presidential election slated for February. For the APC and its presidential flag-bearer, Buhari, the strategy to endear Brand Buhari has been one of mixed results. But his supporters, though out-funded and outmanoeuvred, have refused to be brwo-beaten into giving up. The race to win the ‘contract’ for branding Buhari was not a fiercely contested one; at a point in the race, his fate was yet undecided. No one knew if he was in it for thrill or ready to go the whole nine yards, until he clinched his party’s sole ticket. The Buhari Support Organisation currently has 82 registered support groups with over 475, 796 coordinators and a total membership in the region of 8, 492,226 across the country. The organisation has said it intends to use the registration and donation cards to enlist the members of the groups as volunteers change agents and also to capture the spatial distribution of its donors. While acknowledging that Nigerians are going through a difficult time, the organisation expressed the confidence that Nigerians are poised to making the requisite sacrifices to bring about a positive change. The managers of Brand Buhari have, often, not wasted the opportunity to highlight the main advantage and attraction of a Buhari presidency which, they say, is his perception as an incorruptible person who can be trusted to confront the cancer of corruption that is ravaging the country, head on. It is the one issue which, properly articulated and coupled with that of insecurity, can ensure the votes swing in Buhari’s favour. While Jonathan’s handlers are trying to get Nigerians to acknowledge his ‘calm approach’ and the arguable war against corruption, Buhari’s handlers are pouring their conviction into the unarguable stance of their man on the war against corruption. Unlike previous elections, when the opposition merely joins in the fray, more as a form of defiance than an actual desire to challenge for the coveted seat of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, unfolding events indicate that, this time, the opposition, the APC, may actually pose a real threat to the ruling PDP. Judging from the rising clamour for change among Nigerians, occasioned by the mounting disillusionment in the hearts of the populace thus far, with the prevailing state of insecurity, economic downturn and the rising profile of corruption combining to make Nigerians groan, many have come out clean to demand for change, the need to usher in a new leadership possessing the required political will to put the country back on the path of genuine growth. While Brand Buhari is harping on the willingness of its client to purge the land of its many ills, the handlers of Brand Jonathan are asking for continuity and playing on the religious concerns of Nigerians. While one group is promoting the achievements of the incumbent, the opposition is promising what it will do – certainly, both brand managers have drawn the battle lines, earning them the right to become the official managers of both brands. So far, their activities have been able to attract as much as N181m (for Brand Buhari) approximately and more than N21.7bn (for Brand Jonathan) – though the handlers of the latter have continually denied that the said amount is not “just for elections”. In the 2011 presidential election, 38.2 million people voted as against 66.8 million registered voters, representing about 55 per cent voter turnout. The victorious brand might just be the one which encourages the majority of Nigerians to go the polls to vote in its favour. On perception management, a projection of President Jonathan as a seemingly ‘harmless’ person who flows with the tide may attract a ‘let him be’ vote for a second term from an indulgent electorate while a vigorous marketing of Buhari as a selfless patriot and liberator from the bondage of corruption and insecurity could persuade the electorate to just fall in love with the ex-soldier, just for the thrill of trying out his leadership – at least in the 21st Century. Given the imponderables of politics, though, anything can happen between now and February 14, 2015, to tip the scales and change the game. Despite having an arsenal of tactics at their disposal from their last presidential campaigns three years ago, it appears the campaign teams of both presidential candidates are not resting on their oars.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 06:18:12 +0000
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