Political appointments for those who hate politics (III)

Second Strategy: Use your resources to help the candidate  According to Pew Research, 62 percent of Americans get their news from the social media and 44 percent of them get it from Facebook.   Armed with this insight, an American hedge fund and computer billionaire, RobertMercer, perfected algorithms to target individual voters and employ the gains […]

Second Strategy: Use your resources to help the candidate

 According to Pew Research, 62 percent of Americans get their news from the social media and 44 percent of them get it from Facebook. 

 Armed with this insight, an American hedge fund and computer billionaire, RobertMercer, perfected algorithms to target individual voters and employ the gains in the service of Donald Trump. 

From your likes alone on Facebook, the algorithm can predict your choices. With this knowledge, specially designed ads can then be targeted at individuals, not groups. 

Andy Wigmore, one of those associated with such systems explained to the U.K. Guardian that Facebook was key. 

A “like” is their most “potent weapon,” Wigmore said. “Because using artificial intelligence, as we did, tells you all sorts of things about that individual and how to convince them with what sort of advert. 

And you knew there would also be other people in their network who liked what they liked, so you could spread. And then you follow them. The computer never stops learning and it never stops monitoring.”

It’s alleged that Russia deployed the same techniques and primarily used Facebook to convince Americans to vote in favor of Trump.

So when you hear that Russia interfered with American elections, it’s not that they rigged the voting machines in America to help Trump. They did interfered before the elections. Sometimes employing techniques that psychologist Robert Cialdini calls pre-suasion in his book of the same name. 

But Trump must have been a very poor candidate, because despite this help, he was three million popular votes behind Hillary Clinton. 

Which makes the help Trump received a huge one. 

It’s frightening that social media provides a huge platform for successful spin. One study found that 38 percent of campaign messages on Republican Facebook page was false; it was 19 percent on Democratic Party’s pages, which is also too high. So all of them were lying.  And all of them were able to take benefit of such lies due to facilitation of social media.

What’s the point of these examples? 

While the motivation for helping Trump by Russia and Mercar are still being debated, for someone who desires some favour from a candidate or an incoming administration, it pays to offer your help by using the resources at your disposal. 

The resource can be anything: money, strategy, technology, special skills, platforms, mobilization of people and so forth. 

I agree with JeffereyPfeffer when he wrote that: “Having resources is an important source of power only if you use those resources strategically to help others whose support you need.” 

For  example, a youth leader with many members in his organization can convince the members to not only vote but also convince others to give their support to a particular candidate. 

The only problem with our youth comes when they ask the candidate to bring money before they can offer such help. 

Let me stress this point with a story. During the APC primary elections for the House of Representatives in 2015, I asked some of my supporters to give me their support by electing a friend who was contesting. 

One day one called me from Bida that his “people were requesting for money before they would vote” for my candidate. 

I told him that when I came back from Abuja, we would sort it out. I thought my word was enough. But it wasn’t. 

He didn’t vote for my candidate. In the stadium during the primaries, I saw him lining up behind another person who promised money for votes – half now and half after the elections. 

Yet when this politician needs any help, he comes to me, he doesn’t go to the person for whom he voted. I’ve since forgiven and have offered him help whenever I was able. 

But it’s difficult to forget. Sometimes I can’t help feeling contempt for him. When I needed help, you didn’t help me with even a vote, yet you expect me to fulfill all your constant requests? This is not the route to follow for those who desire political appointment.

Our youth are so focused on money it is nauseating. 

There was a time we wanted to protest the bad roads in Nupeland so that the Federal Government would hear our cries and fix the federal roads in the state. We needed the media. But since Nigerian journalists want you to pay them before they will report news, I offered to pay for the news coverage from my pocket. 

But I was told that the youth wanted me to pay them too before coming for the protest.

“Tell them,” I said, “that the protest is cancelled. Let’s enjoy the bad roads together.”

If a candidate has to pay you for mobilization, then you’re not helping him, rather, he’s buying a service. 

Help can be categorized into three types – all of them selfish:

– Helping because you expect rewards from God

– Helping to improve the community of which you are a member 

– And helping because you expect some worldly returns in the future. 

I do my NGO work (e.g. tree planting) for the first reason. I invested a lot of time, ink and money in the elections of President Buhari and my state governor for the second reason. 

The third reason, I’ve no use for. As much as possible, I’ve tried to make it haram for myself to help so that I get a reward from a human being. Because you’re likely to be disappointed. 

That’s why I don’t get along with our entitled politicians. “Give me money because you may need my vote in the future,” they say. “Keep your vote,” I reply. 

My personal misgivings aside, it is to the third reason that a person who desires a political appointment must turn.

You must find the unique help you can share with the candidate or the campaign. Make it standout, useful and impactful. That way, when offices are being shared, you may be remembered. 

That’s why President Buhari’s media team is bloated. The people who worked for him during the campaign on the social media were too many. And many of them were compensated. 

And anyone – big or small – has the power to offer such help. It may be your social media platform or your association (of tailors for example), or finance, skill or strategy. 

I know people who have benefited from government by investing only strategy. But the strategy must be a very good one – even though all of us think we have winning game plans. 

In summary, you seek a political appointment before the elections, not after. And you do that by helping with a valuable resource.