How PMB can pitch to win

Pitching to Win” was the title of a lecture delivered by Maxim Behar, president of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) at the last summit of the African Public Relations Association, APRA, in Calabar. Winning is the sole purpose of putting a pitch together. That is why consultants and agencies go the extra mile; dig […]

Pitching to Win” was the title of a lecture delivered by Maxim Behar, president of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) at the last summit of the African Public Relations Association, APRA, in Calabar. Winning is the sole purpose of putting a pitch together. That is why consultants and agencies go the extra mile; dig deep into their well of creativity, to craft something special to win the approval of their client. In his view, pitching is such a serious business that it ought to be paid for by clients irrespective of the final outcome.
One hundred and thirty-seven delegates drawn from twelve countries namely – South Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and host – Nigeria attended the conference. I was quite surprised that Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade did not personally attend to welcome the rest of Africa to his domain; makes one wonder how many times the state receives such a gathering from the continent. But that is a matter for another day.
Today, I’m going to make a pitch to President Buhari on how he can successfully navigate the treacherous waters of our cacophonous politics and achieve many of the lofty aims on account of which Nigerians entrusted him with power. This pitch is pro bono publico.
A president is nothing if not the most visible salesman of his country. Governance entails a continuous selling of contending ideas. According to Martin Coburn, to say that you hate selling is a bit like saying that you hate company politics; the truth does not cease to exist simply because it’s ignored.  Or even hated.  And your ability to successfully navigate your way through both of these two potential minefields, will dramatically affects how effective you can be…”
It is clear to the discerning observer that the campaign for the soul of Nigeria did not end with the 2015 presidential elections. As soon as the results were announced, many of yesterday’s men who had soiled their hands banded together to begin another campaign to discredit everything Buhari does or doesn’t do.
I do not want to get into the argument of what fuels the violent campaigns of the Niger Delta Avengers. On the philosophical level, you could ask, as the cerebral Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo did in an article, whether they were indeed avengers or scavengers.
In the days of Ken Saro Wiwa’s peaceful agitation for the development of the region that produces Nigeria’s oil wealth, I openly supported the great man because his cause was just. If I was from the Niger Delta I would also have taken the position he did in the face of the ruination of the ecology of an area that could otherwise have been a spectacle of aquatic splendour. Ken deployed his formidable intellectual muscle to the cause, internationalising it until the Nigerian government took notice. Eventually he paid the supreme price and Niger Deltans resorted to armed struggle.
I have recounted the above to underline the fact that the struggle for justice and equity in the Niger Delta started as a noble one. The ongoing mindless destruction of oil infrastructure in the creeks and threat of invading other cities in Nigeria is terribly ill-advised. It can only bring added grief to the voiceless majority of Niger Deltans in the rural areas whose permission was not sought before the declaration of war on the rest of Nigeria.
Some newspapers have reported that the reason for the Avengers gale of destruction is the ongoing probe of looters of the national treasury. If that is true, I don’t think the Avengers will get any sympathy from the rest of Nigeria and, indeed, from the rest of the world. The wages of violence is death and the god of violence sides with the deadlier force. My prayer is that things don’t degenerate to the point where the government will declare what is happening as War, and respond appropriately. That is an eventuality we must all pray and work to avert.
President Buhari cannot afford to drop his anti-corruption crusade. He might as well resign and return to Daura. The anti-corruption fight is one of the reasons Nigerians voted for him. He must pursue it relentlessly. Otherwise, he would already have failed in his mission to reinvent Nigeria even before starting out.
The young men who call themselves Niger Delta Avengers are Nigerians. I think the government should still go the extra mile to bring them to the table. Their arrogant and provocative posturing should be ignored in the interest of the region. The government’s directive to the armed forces to temporarily stand down military operations in the region is a good starting point. There is no point killing a bee with a sledgehammer.
Rather, I would suggest that the president roll out the following:
•Hold urgent talks with the political leaders and traditional rulers of the oil-producing areas, encouraging them to put all their current grievances on the table and getting their buy-in on the need for peace in the region.
·•Map out a comprehensive development plan for the region, even if that plan is to be implemented within the current structures.
•Extend the same treatment to the political and traditional leaders in the Southeast states where IPOB and MASSOB have been agitating for secession.
•Constitute a Presidential Committee to examine the recommendations of the two National Conferences and map out plans of making the major recommendations a reality.
•Mop up loose stolen funds that could be used to finance insurgency.
•Design appropriate messaging to carry ALL Nigerians along every inch of the way.

In pitching to win, Buhari must take note of the small things and set out a CREATIVE FRAMEWORK for a continued discussion within and outside his party because we are all stakeholders in the Nigerian project. As Alexis Petje declared in her presentation titled “Innovate or Die” at the aforementioned APRA Summit, if one desires only to do things the same way they had been done before, one might as well be dead.