Former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has given an account of how disciplined, strategic communication can transform a fragmented opposition into a cohesive national movement.
Mohammed gave the insight at Abbey College, Cambridge, UK, yesterday, emphasising said that the method was deployed by the political oppositions in Nigeria to defeat the ruling party in 2015.
Lai Mohammed is on a speaking tour of the UK, where he will be engaging audiences on leadership, governance and public communication.
Mohammed traced the roots of the transformation of the opposition to the aftermath of Nigeria’s 2003 general elections, which he famously described as a “political tsunami.”
“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.”
When Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999, the number of states controlled by the three major parties after the elections was fairly balanced.
The emergent ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 21 states, the main opposition All Peoples Party (APP) secured nine states, while the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which was my party at the time, won 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.
According to him, in spite of controlling only one state at the time, the ACN leveraged the power of communication to emerge as the most vocal opposition force in the country.
“The APP, which had by then become the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), lost two states but remained the main opposition with seven states.”
The former minister explained that the outcome of the election stripped the AD of power, structure and influence, compelling it to seek new alliances.
He said the efforts led to the formation of the Action Congress of Democrats (ACD), which later evolved into the Action Congress (AC) and eventually the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
According to him, in spite of controlling only one state at the time, the ACN leveraged the power of communication to emerge as the most vocal opposition force in the country.
“In those days, communication was our greatest weapon. Every word mattered. “Every message had to cut through the noise, because if it didn’t, we simply did not exist in the public consciousness.”
Mohammed explained that, through sustained public engagement, disciplined messaging and relentless advocacy, the opposition gradually rebuilt public trust and expanded its political footprint.
According to him, the ACN grew from one state to six, a development that enabled it to forge alliances with other parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013.
He noted that the APC immediately became the dominant opposition force and went on to defeat the ruling PDP in the 2015 general elections, marking the first time in Nigeria’s history that a ruling party was unseated at the national level.
“That journey taught me that communication is not just about speaking, it is about persistence, clarity and strategic positioning,” the former Minister added.
