Strategic communication helped APC defeat PDP in 2015, says Lai Mohammed

Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says disciplined and strategic communication played a key role in transforming a divided opposition into a national force that defeated the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 general elections.

Mohammed made the remarks on Wednesday while speaking at Abbey College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he reflected on Nigeria’s political evolution and the role of messaging in opposition politics.

He described the 2003 general elections as a “political tsunami,” recalling how the opposition suffered one of its worst setbacks in the country’s democratic history.

“That year, 2003, was the year of a political tsunami in Nigeria, the year the opposition suffered perhaps its worst disaster in the country’s political history,” he said.

According to him, after Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the PDP controlled 21 states, while the All Peoples Party (APP) held nine states and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) controlled six.

“Four years later, after the 2003 general elections, disaster struck. PDP gained seven more states to bring its total to 28. Five of those states were taken from my party’s six, leaving us with only one, Lagos. The APP, which had by then become the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), lost two states but remained the main opposition with seven states,” he said.

Mohammed said the outcome weakened the AD politically and forced it to seek alliances that eventually led to the formation of the Action Congress of Democrats (ACD), later renamed the Action Congress (AC), and subsequently the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Despite controlling only one state at the time, he said the ACN used communication as its strongest tool to remain relevant and visible in the national political space.