"Attack Dog" Okupe Vs "Liar" Mohammed in the art of political spokesmanship

By Niran Adedokun

As a student of the art of communications, I am fascinated by the endless exchange between Dr. Doyin Okupe and Alhaji Lai Mohmamed.

 Okupe is Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to Nigeria’s President Jonathan while Mohammed is the National Publicity Secretary for the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. Both in their 60s, these gentlemen have literally turned Nigeria into a war zone of words with the populace caught in between admiration and disgust.
Ideally, these two men should have little or no business engaging each other in a public fight. Lai Mohammed speaks for a party and he should ordinarily get replies, when need be, from his counterpart in the opposing party, I guess it is the inability of the PDP to find an answer to the Mohammed phenomenon that has cast the lot on Okupe. Before Okupe came on the scene, however, a fatal blow had been dealt on the image of the PDP.
When he became National Publicity Secretary of the then Alliance for Democracy (AD) which metamorphosed into the Action Congress and later the Action Congress of Nigeria) in 2003, (after a failed attempt to become governor in his native Kwara State), Mohammed employed a combination of propaganda and media relations to build a near sparkling image for his party.
Cashing in on his experience and relationships that he built as Publicity Officer at the Nigeria Airport Authority, Mohammed, who is described as the enfant terrible of Nigeria’s new democratic experience channelled his energy to create the perception that his party was the best alternative for Nigeria. He didn’t stop there, but went ahead to paint successive PDP administrations at the federal level as wasteful, incompetent, demonic, visionless, greedy, clueless and more recently despotic.  He seemed to have imbibed quite a bit of Robert Greene’s suggestion in the book the 48 Laws of Power to “... make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them” That is why till date, perhaps, public perception of the PDP is largely negative.
In reality, however, keen observers say there are very few differences between the PDP and the ACN.  For example, the ACN lacks internal democracy and respect for basic democratic tenets as much as the PDP. By his own testimony, Mohamed shared in a recent interview in the City People magazine of how”... as Chief of Staff, I was the next most powerful person after the governor...” where there was a Deputy Govenor who was eventually impeached by the Lagos State House of Assembly. 
As  spokesperson to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Garba Shehu noted in a recent article, the true picture of the opposition in Nigeria (of which the ACN is leading) “is one of toothlessness and characteristic opportunism, for, many in the opposition camp are just waiting to get the chance to loot the people and bleed Nigeria as the others revel in doing.” What’s more, each of these parties has a fair share of cross-over members in its midst. They are all just politicians, birds of the same feather, who just happen to currently perch in different nests. But very few Nigerians notice that courtesy of the very effective use to which Mr. Mohammed has put the tools of communication.
Since President Jonathan came into office in 2010, Mohammed has been on duty, speaking and issuing statements at every opportunity. Most of these statements criticise the President without sparing his party. Even now, the PDP still does not seem have a creative solution to the Lai Mohammed challenge.
Enter Doyin Okupe and the story begins to change. Ogun State born Dr Okupe trained as a medical doctor, but he has been in the consciousness of Nigerians as a spokesperson for over 20 years! Okupe was the National Publicity Secretary for the National Republican Convention (NRC) when the June 12, 2003 elections were annulled. And at the return of democracy in 1999, his appointment as the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity was about the first made by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Although he was unceremoniously sacked from that position in 2006, Okupe had built a reputation for himself as a man who was in a position to defend any action of his principal no matter what anyone feels about it. 
Since his appointment in July 2012, Okupe hasn’t disappointed his benefactors, not even those who thought he was coming back as an “attack dog” on behalf of the President. He is vocal, courageous, daring and garrulous in his defence of Mr. President. Okupe is not afraid to say anything in any way and at anytime to defend the actions and person of President Goodluck Jonathan and that to some extent has toned down the temper of Mohammed’s criticism.
Reacting to Mohammed allegation that funds generated from the SURE-P (Subsidy Reinvestment Programme - an internship scheme of the federal government to empower Nigerian graduates with skills and knowledge.) was being shared by a number of PDP stalwarts, Okupe said among other things in an interview that “the Lai in Mohammed’s name, can actually be spelt as liar. Liar Mohammed.” that is as caustic and hilarious as these two men can get in their exchange.
Beyond the penchant of these two men to engage themselves, sometimes amusing Nigerians, sometimes informing Nigerians and at other times just heating up the polity, impressions, which will determine where each of the parties end up in the 2015 elections (which is their utmost target) are being created in the minds of Nigerians. Ultimately, we shall be the judge of how effective their communication has been.