By Andrew Kamara
*_APC: A Failure to Communicate_*
*I’m not sure communications is an industry anyone sets out to work in; you tend to fall into it. And yet all the same, it is a challenging, rewarding job that can put you at the heart of politics and business.
Which is why APC’s communications team strategy is all the more perplexing.
They have depended on a wave of public discontent with this rotten, illegitimate government, combined with a weary public that is apathetic to our ever more divisive politics. It’s an enviable position to be in; most opposition or Public Relations teams will give almost anything to face down such an incompetent and crisis-ridden government. Spin should be the APC’s communication team’s hallmark and a top-down marketing and aggressive news management. However, our public relations team threw out the baby with the bathwater._*
*_The communications landscape has transformed since the mid-2000s. With the relative decline of the tabloids and the explosion of social media. What worked for APC back then is not appropriate now. A more open hybrid style of communication; still shaping the mainstream media narrative while capitalizing on supporters’ ingenuity in social media is the way to go. However, it has been near-impossible to discern any kind of coherent and comprehensive APC communication strategy over the last 12 months.
The Public Relations Team all but absented themselves from the media stage, hoping for APC and the Tripartite to implode. Gone is the phlegmatic APC of old, solid and reliable; we are now faced with a rabid, “Elections are over” rabble from our communication team. No, Elections: It’s not over until it’s over._*
*_The PR team could not effectively develop and present a narrative that blamed SLPP for wrecking the country’s economy, tribal division, and much less the national Peace agreement signed._*
*_The Tripartite investigation and its dynamics favor APC and Dr. Samura Kamara – there’s no two ways about it. But they just couldn’t ensure these messages resonate with the public – do our stakeholders talk about them, do they care about them? Did they identify messages that work to help towards achieving our objectives? The answer is NO._*
*__These are just a few quick observations of what public relations professionals can learn from our Public Relations Team failures, most of which are down to a chronic lack of PR leadership or probably something more sinister. We can only speculate. Infighting might be entertaining the party’s opponents and frustrating our supporters; but it poses a real threat to how APC functions as a unit, and so to our political system._*
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