Prominent political strategist and public affairs analyst, Chief Segun Showunmi, has tasked Nigeria’s political players to do everything humanly possible to make the country work and overcome its numerous challenges.
Showunmi, in his pep talk at the monthly Business (Virtual) Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Ogun State Chapter, challenged members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among others, to lead the charge for the nation’s rebirth as it marks 26 years of uninterrupted civil rule.
Speaking on the topic, “Politics and Public Relations: Assessing Our Democratic Journey as a Nation,” the former spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 election, noted that Nigerians have only one country and must work together to develop it irrespective of their individual differences.
“We have only one country and we must do everything humanly possible to get it work,” Showunmi remarked, even as he submitted that Nigeria has faired well for keeping democracy intact for 26 years.
“Never mind that men that are better than (our current leaders) could not even sustain the First, Second and Third Republics. But these ones that seem to be a republic not made up of some of the best philosophers has survived for 26 years; there must be something we have learnt or there must be something we can call group habit that we have dropped. So, within that context, it has done well because we are still practising democracy even though all our neighbours are losing theirs,” he said.
The Guest Speaker also reiterated the importance for leaders to gain the trust of the masses through a moderate and acceptable lifestyle.
“Part of the reasons why you have a lot of insurgency, crisis, kidnapping becoming a business and all of that is because of excruciating poverty. But poverty alone will not embolden people to go that route. They become embolden because they want to copy the lifestyle of the leaders. When you live too big a vivacious life in front of the people, they desire that,” he posited.
Showunmi, who drew comparisons between the two major political parties in Nigeria, admitted that the ruling APC had been able to develop its communication right with stylised content better than the opposition PDP which, according to him, had failed to get the citizens to even empathise.
His words: “The objective of a PR manager must always be believability. So, for the Peoples Democratic Party, my party, first of all, they would have to stop their own haemorrhaging by themselves because there are some things that you expect them to get and they themselves ought to get it.”
“Then they must be prepared to bring in professionals. When a consultant comes into an organisation and looks at that organisation from outside, they make strong recommendations on things that must be changed and things that must be added. But until we get to that stage, they won’t do much than what they are doing now.”
“Our rivals, the APC, have been able to key in to that design. And you can see why it is easy for them to get away with a lot of blue murder as against how it was hard for PDP to be able to get the citizens to even empathise even when they were bending backward over to take them to the direction that was good.”
Showunmi, while emphasising the significance of public relations in engendering good governance and promoting the visions of political players, urged public relations professionals to be more actively involved in the nation’s political space.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, the Ogun NIPR Chairman, Mrs. Oluwaseun Boye, applauded members for their tireless efforts and commitment, which paid off with the Chapter’s triumph in winning the Diamond Anniversary Engagement Award, as part of the NIPR’s 60th anniversary celebration, during the 2025 Nigeria Public Relations Week (NPRW) held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
“This prestigious recognition is not just a plaque on the wall—it is a tribute to our resilience, our consistency, and our shared commitment to the ideals of our profession,” Boye added.
The Chairman underscored the significance of the June Business Meeting, saying the topic of its pep talk was necessary for reflection and assessment of Nigeria’s democratic journey as well as to explore the role of public relations in strengthening and advancing the nation’s democracy.
