Last week, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi was elected the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at a mini congress of the party which held in Abuja. That position had been vacant for about a year since Lai Mohammed, the former spokesperson and face of the party, accepted a well-deserved cabinet position in the government.
The party's search for a suitable replacement apparently ended with the former minister; the first time that someone who has held a cabinet level position would be occupying that office. I have no doubt that Abdullahi has the right mix of experience and contacts to be very successful at his current beat. A former journalist and editor with Thisday newspaper, Abdullahi graduated from the University of Lagos and the University of Sussex in the UK. And since 2003 when he left the newsroom to work with the Kwara State government, he has handled varied responsibilities in government, rising from the humble position of special assistant to a cabinet minister in the last government.
My confidence in his abilities is drawn from working closely with him as his special assistant for about three years. As a minister of youth development, Abdullahi worked night and day with various stakeholders to design the Youth Employment Programme, the flagship programme of the ministry.
It was a strategic intervention with the goal of filling critical gaps in the youth employment landscape in Nigeria by empowering between 250,000 - 1 million Nigerian youth with the skills, experience, and business development support that they require to gain meaningful employment and start successful businesses. It was an ambitious plan; but I have no doubt that Abdullahi would have accomplished it he had enough time and was not redeployed from youth. Bolaji Abdullahi,ex Sports Minister Like the YEP, his plans to reform the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme was not followed through.
That plan involved refocusing the scheme to be service oriented, whereby corps members will serve in thematic areas: education, agriculture, rural health and infrastructure. The idea is to make the compulsory one year service memorable for corps members who would be posted to service areas where the country really needed to be served. But it was in sports that Abdullahi's deft managerial skill became most obvious. The minister of sports, unlike his cabinet colleagues, actually lacked executive power. He could not just give directives and expect everything to fall into place.
It requires great tact and power of suasion because the federations are not beholden to the minister, except when they require funds. They actually tend to believe that their primary loyalty lies with the global federation that they were affiliated with. Perhaps his most enduring success in sports was the reform of the Nigerian professional football league. Under Abdullahi's leadership, the domestic football league was repositioned in line with the global best practices.
The League Management Company (LMC) restored credibility and transparency to the management of the Nigerian Premier League and for the first time in years, the LMC has consistently secured a title sponsor for the league, and attracted significant broadcast sponsorship. Today stadiums are packed full with delighted fans as the reputation of the league as increased considerably. Abdullahi also left imprint on grassroots sports, with the introduction of the National Youth Game and the launch of Rythm 'N Play, designed to bring two million children into sports.
He also set the framework for the practice of high performance sports, among so many others. Not surprisingly, when he left the cabinet in March 2014, he was universally hailed as the best sports minister in recent time. Now that he has become the publicity secretary of the APC, the party deserves congratulations for attracting such a good hand.
If the party was looking for a "talkaholic", or a spin doctor, they have made the wrong choice. Even though Abdullahi talks well, he prefers to let other people do the talking most of the time. And he is not a propagandist. However, if the party was looking for someone who could help the party to build an efficient communications system and bring respectability to the party, they would not have made a better choice.
It is almost unprecedented that a party would have as its National Publicity Secretary, someone who understands the inner workings of government at the highest level; a professional journalist who understands the media establishment, and a senior member of the policy directorate of its campaign, who therefore understands the philosophy of the party. His close relationship with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki would also be a distinct asset as the party tries to forge stronger relationship between its members in the executive and legislative arms of government.
In fact, I wonder if it is sheer coincidence that the party leadership is meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly for the first time, just after Abdullahi was appointed. This is indeed a distinct sign of things to come. I say a big congratulations to boss and friend, and I pray God to grant him clarity as he takes on yet another assignment.
Ogunro, MD of Peach Communications, sent this piece from Abuja
