2015: What True Supporters Of Jonathan Should Be Doing

Ever since I volunteered my talent, skill, time, resources and energy in President Jonathan's project, I have received countless excoriations and threatening messages from people. While some readers have called me all types of debilitating names, others have taken practical steps aimed at dampening my spirit and courage.

For the fact that, nobody has ever called to say “Thank you”, let alone any material support is enough reason to discourage this cause if my motivations were driven by any material benefits. But, because it is borne out of personal conviction, the call of conscience which is above all calls, I have continued in this journey. Besides, there is no other human support that is more than the inspiration drawn from the story of a man who rose from the valley of life to the peak of a mountain. A man who through hard work, loyalty, dedication and abiding faith in God rose to the pinnacle of his political career without the permanent anchor

of any god-father or god-mother. That is why I will continue to identify with President Jonathan and Barrack Obama in my writings because these two men have greatly influenced me in this decade.

However, as next year's Presidential election draws closer, one had expected that some of these socio-political groups rooting for Jonathan's reelection next year; especially those with heavy media presence would have started complementing such with feet with foot soldiers on ground. But, to my chagrin, some of the so-called pro-Jonathan groups are only media tigers without the needed man power to deliver victory to the President come February 14, 2015. This observation has become very necessary and timely because as a communication scholar and practicing journalist, I know the limit of media in influencing voting decisions in our clime. This is because, no media message gets to the voters in the exact way it was intended or designed. This is why “Two-Step Flow Theory” was introduced by communication experts.

Two-Step Flow Theory is a communication theory which asserts that information from the media and the message received by the people are influenced by opinion leaders. This theory says opinion leaders are very influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviors towards a particular candidate. For example, in 1944, there was a study conducted in the United States of America and published by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet in the “People's Choice”. The study focused on the process of decision-making during a presidential election campaign. The researchers were out to find empirical support for the direct influence of media messages on voting intensions. So, they were shocked to discover that informal news sources and personal contacts were more mentioned by their respondences more frequently than exposure to radio, television and newspaper messages as their sources of influence in deciding who to vote for or who

not to vote for. Those who add their personal influence to media message and as well distort the actual media content and then pass on their own interpretation of the message to the electorates are called opinion leaders.

Hence, what happen between media's direct message and the audience's reaction to the message is determined by opinion leaders, and that is why Paul Lazarsfeld and his colleagues developed the two-step flow communication hypothesis which has been proved to become theory. So, I cite this theory to help explain why certain media campaigns for Jonathan's reelection next year may not be yielding the desired results, because there are no field soldiers to help correlate the unbiased and undiluted versions and then pass them on to the electorates to be well informed, because, it is when they are better informed that they can make better electoral decisions next year. So, I have decided to write on this unpopular or neglected aspect, so that members of the would-be Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Council will know how to blend the role of the media and the role of the opinion leaders together for undisputed Jonathan's victory next year.

Nonetheless, while we awaits the composition and inauguration of the Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Council, an official campaign organization of the PDP which will solely drive Jonathan's presidential campaign after the party's convention in December, some of the socio-political organizations publicizing the President's achievements as well as sponsoring media blitz against Jonathan's opponent in the print media should start galvanizing eligible voters for the president ahead of the polls. This is what the President needs at this very moment. The ultimate goal for now should be on how to return Jonathan next year. Because, since the President is a leading candidate for the election, all he needs is realistic strategies that will continually keep him ahead of other candidates until the election is conducted. This is because; a winner must be proactive to remain relevant and not reactionary to cause division in his support base.

This piece is however not condemning the various ongoing media campaigns for Jonathan, but instead of all the pro-Jonathan organizations jostling for spaces in the media, some of them should hire reputable poll stars to conduct polls in likely difficult states and as well study the results, and then design a strategy on how to turn those difficult states to possible states for Jonathan next year.

The era of adopting one campaign strategy for all the six Geo-Political zones in the country are over, because, the likely challenges that President Jonathan would face varies from zone to zones. For example, the strategy that works in South East and South-South Geo-political zones cannot work in North West, North East or even South West Geo-political zones. So, some of these organizations seeking Jonathan's attention in the media should hire poll stars to conduct pre-election polls in those likely difficult zones to get the baseline data, analyze them and then formulate winning strategy for each zone, and then pass them across to the President and his Think tanks. This is what the president will value and appreciate more than of the media campaigns and blitz on opponents that don't normally get to the real voters and desired results. Besides, most of the media messages as currently observed are done in English Language whereas we have over 350

different ethnic groups in the 120, 000 polling stations across the country. So, those who will continue with publicity role for Jonathan should translate Jonathan's achievements in all the languages in the country because, if one vote can make the president to win an election, then an entire ethnic group should not be ignored.

Comrade Edwin Uhara is a Political Strategist, Activist and Public Affairs Commentator based in Abuja.

Reach him on 07065862479 or [email protected]