One of the amazing things about the BON debate was the final speech of President Jonathan – it was unexpected, surprising and inspiring at the same time. I stood up in my living room and actually clapped for PDP. As a student of marketing, I have to give respect to the consultants that packaged it – it sounded so believable and for a moment I was worried about the effectiveness on the people it was meant to reach. Then the picture above flashed in my mind (a Juju man holding a laptop (lol)) – no matter how wonderful the packaging is, 15 minutes after the debate, reality struck! The sound of electric generator permeated the atmosphere and you realize that a 90 minutes debate cannot erase the 12-years of PDP failed promises.
However, I realize that I am a sort of visionary and I do not matter in the scheme of things. Let me explain – there are 5 types of customers in any adoption system – the enthusiasts, the visionary, the pragmatic, the conservative and the skeptics. The enthusiasts and visionary are always first to adopt a political party and they contain a minute number of the voters whilst the biggest numbers lie with the pragmatic and the conservative – these ones are always undecided and wait for some certain triggers to make their choices. They are also more loyal than the others. So for any business, if you can get the pragmatic and the conservative on your side, you are sure of having a sustained business. No successful persons waste their time on the skeptics.
With that out of the way, it is important to note that the debate was focused on the pragmatic and the conservatives. Emotions, which is the strongest driver to any buy-in, was employed – “I was born poor”, “I am one of you”, “I came to the presidency through divine providence” instead of “while I was governor of Bayelsa State, I did this and that with the revenue I was giving”, “while I was vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I propose this and that” or “my presidency for 1 year has produced this or that”. All commons sense thrown out of the window, it was plain emotions all the way.
Another fascinating discuss was his reason for not attending the NN24 debate; first, he was not in the country, he got back late to realize there was a debate and second, NN24 did not have the coverage and the President does not have the luxury of attending every debate. Seriously? And all the questions were superficial and none of the eminent panelist could ask; “is it true that you requested for the questions before the NN24 debate?” “If you could not attend, what about the Vice President Sambo?” Ok, maybe it skipped their memory and nothing was asked that actually put 12 years of wasted resources on the spot. And just like any charade, there will always be miscalculation – President Jonathan boldly said; “ask the chairman of my party, I follow their objectives” translated to “if I am elected, add another 4 years to the 12 years of wasted resources”.
Just like I envisioned, the debate actually worked; the popular chorus on the street is; “he is surrounded by bad people, he is actually humble, the devil we know is better than the ones we do not know, let us vote for him”. I personally feel it was a huge mistake for the other parties not to show up for the BON debate but on the flip side, none of them had the vision and the enthusiasm to cause a major upset – neither can a candle placed on the bushel illuminate the room nor can a hero be made in the dark. As we are likely to witness another 4 years of PDP presidential rule, who do we blame? God? Jega? Nigerian populace? Other Parties? Or you?
