APC tech: Lessons for opposition — by Charles Awuzie

This is the APC Situation Room for digitised real-time monitoring of elections. It is documented on this platform that I proposed this system to the opposition in 2023. It was ignored.

The most powerful thing about this picture was captured by John W. Tukey when he said that “The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.”

Data Visualisation brings deep Insights – you understand where you performed well, why you lost in places you lost, how to re-strategise and how to improve for the next round”.

It is even difficult advising the opposition today. Yet we NEED a strong opposition to balance the power that the APC needs. Isaac Fayose was cooked alive for saying that Opposition should go to APC to learn opposition. But that’s the truth.

Their Excellencies Peter Obi, Atiku, Amaechi and co should take 1 FULL WEEK OFF THE PUBLIC SPACE in a private retreat somewhere in Abuja locked with DATA ANALYSTS, STRATEGISTS, PR EXPERTS, LAWYERS, POLITICAL ANALYSTS AND A DEV TEAM.
No cameras. No noise. No tweets. No media appearances. Nothing. Just dead silence for a week – restructuring, re-strategising, and re-training. No emotions. No sentiments. No bias. No praise singing. Nothing like “you are the man the people want” or “everyone will vote for you” or “we will win 2027 if the election is free and fair”. Keep those things in the dustbin of social media propaganda and face real DATA. Cook yourself then resurface after 1 week with strategy.

This is what the APC does – more substance than noise. When they were the opposition, they had social media squad – paid, trained and strategically positioned to influence the social media space. They were not amorphous – they had leadership, control and command.
In opposition, APC deployed the most sophisticated data visualisations we’ve ever seen – using Data-Driven Sentiment Analysis to map issues and track sentiments.
The situation room you see in this picture was first deployed by APC in 2015.

Yet the same people who formed APC are now in ADC but they left the technological machinery behind in APC while selling sentiments to the public.

If the ADC is serious, by now, we would be seeing visualised Data flying up and down across major media platforms with a dedicated ADC Situation Room.

In 2023, the APC implemented most of the tech ideas I shared here – while I was supporting Labour Party. They grabbed the ideas and implemented.

We need strategic OPPOSITION. APC should also stop accepting defections to avoid my prediction of an IMPLOSION. I got into trouble with APC for saying that APC is not growing, it is Swelling. A swollen body should not be mistaken as growth. I want both APC and ADC to co-exist in competitive technology driven political environments across Nigeria and that’s the only time we will begin to understand the beauty of democracy – not this democracy 1.0, maybe we would activate democracy 1.5.

I want to raise a crop of INTELLECTUAL NIGERIANS who will look at politics in Nigeria holistically without bias to offer real solutions that will advance leadership in Nigeria. Very soon, the entire country will need the intelligence gathered by this small think tank basically because they are NEITHER HERE OR THERE in a country where everyone is either here or there. They are the Gray hats – neither black nor white. And only such can dispense facts without fear or favour.

• Awuzie is leading a new era of non-partisan Political Data Analytical Front.