Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello has admitted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), would not be a push over in the 2019 general elections.
He has therefore warned against complacency and called for aggressive marketing of President Muhammadu Buhari as the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, flag bearer.
“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, Bello said Wednesday night when President Buhari hosted a dinner for youth political appointees at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the the Governor, the ruling party will be taking opposition party, the PDP for granted at its own peril.
“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 sell him to the people.
“Public Relations practitioners will tell you that at some point, having a good product without excellent advertising is like 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 and accomplices, this will be mistaken for 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.
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