It would be a remarkable achievement for an entrepreneur of any age, but at just 31 years old, Nigerian Adebola Williams has already helped three presidential candidates to election victory.
As the founder of political communications agency StateCraft Inc, Williams worked on the campaign that got Goodluck Jonathan elected to the Nigerian presidency in 2011. Four years later he provided his services for the successful election campaign for Jonathan’s rival, current President Muhammadu Buhari.
Then, completing his hat trick, he worked on the communication strategies that helped secure the election of Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo in 2016. Now Williams has now co-written a book, “How to win elections in Africa,” detailing his techniques.
So what’s his advice for wining an African election? His strategy sounds simple: brush up the presidential candidate’s image and, crucially, bolster his popularity among the youth. Using media for change — and elections Williams attributes his success with StateCraft Inc. to his understanding of the youth market. “Where we have an edge is that we’re young people, and we’ve worked with young people for 12 years,” he says.
“We understand how young people in Africa think, we understand the key issues.” That understanding has come from building a media empire that goes beyond StateCraft.
Along with business partner Chude Jideonwo, in 2006 he founded Red Media Africa, a corporate PR and communication company based in Nigeria, which has worked with the likes of Facebook, Uber and Intel.
Through parent company Red, they also own content brand Generation Y!, which runs a number of Nigerian media platforms, as well as The Future Project, a social enterprise that celebrates outstanding young Africans through its annual Future Awards.
“We work to change narratives, to shape opinion, to drive a common good and provoke action,” says Williams. “So that is a journey — using media for change and using media for elections.”
From an early age, Williams was desperate to be on television, and at the age of 17 he landed his first gig co-presenting a TV show, “Youth Talk,” on Nigeria’s national NTA Network. By 19 he was producing his own show, “Nigeria International.”
“I just wanted to be in the media space … because I believe that the media is the best tool to reach people,” he says. Coaching presidents to be media-savvy was a natural progression. Williams established StateCraft Inc. after presidential candidate Jonathan’s team reached out to him in 2011 for help with a communication strategy. Williams was optimistic he was the leader Nigeria needed.
“Jonathan came through to us as a leader who appreciated the importance of youth participating in national development on all fronts,” he says. “We went into it hopeful that he was going to be a breath of fresh air.”
Helping the opposition But Williams says he switched sides when he felt the Jonathan administration had fallen short on many areas of governance. “When we were then approached by the Buhari campaign in late 2014 … we didn’t have much of a doubt it was the right thing to do,” he says.
Williams says StateCraft helped “humanize” Buhari’s message of change to connect with the youth. Through photo shoots and a social media campaign, the team “softened” his image when needed and “refreshed the firm leader image” to communicate his stance on corruption and security, he explains.
Choosing who to represent Following President Buhari’s election in Nigeria in 2015, Williams was approached by the two main political parties in Ghana to work his magic. After analyzing the current state of Ghana, finding out what the citizens wanted and meeting the two presidential candidates, Williams chose to represent Akufo-Addo.
“What we did in Ghana was present a candidate in the way that connects to young people in Ghana … connects to pop culture in Ghana, connects to anger in Ghana and then direct the people to action, and the action is really to vote for our candidate.”
When it comes to deciding what makes a great African leader, Williams believes that African countries need to be more like startups. “(We need to) get to a point where those who are in the eye of the decision have come from an entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial background, who understand the concept of growing something.”
Meet The 30 Year-Old Nigerian Entrepreneur Who Helped 3 African Presidents Get Elected - www.forbes.com
“This is the man with the golden touch,” Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo excitedly told a guest in full glare of jubilant supporters and an observing press. “Anything he touches turns to gold.”
He is talking about Adebola Williams, chief executive officer of StateCraft Inc, the communication agency that helped power Ghana’s three-time presidential aspirant to a victory this time, becoming President in January.
He is not exaggerating. Williams, only 30 this year, has turned out to be the continent’s leading authority on winning elections, running a governance communication company that won the presidential elections in Nigeria in 2015 and then won the presidential elections in Ghana in 2016.
Both elections are eerily similar. Both incumbents, as Vice-Presidents had stumbled into public office based on the deaths of their principals. Both entered into office on a wave of wild popularity. Their opponents had run at least twice each before (three in the case of Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari) – and both had won in the years that they brought in StateCraft Inc to manage their political communication. Both campaigns ran on a ‘Change’ message.
“Because the conditions were so similar, it was easy to replicate a message of ‘Change’,” Williams says during an interview. “Not every election and every context will require a message of change, even though it’s a global movement. “But many countries in West Africa and across Africa are ripe, even desperate for change.”
Williams is co-founder of RED, which is the 11-year-old parent company that houses StateCraft Inc. It’s a network of four media companies focused on Africa’s youth: Red Media Africa, a Public Relations company working in West Africa for Facebook, Uber, Union Bank and Heineken; Generation Y!, a TV and online content company with one of Nigeria’s most popular online newspapers and The Future Project, a social enterprise that hosts Africa’s biggest youth social change event, The Future Awards Africa.
His career began first in film 16 years ago and then in the media began 13 years ago, working for a youth counseling company and soon co-presenting two shows on Nigeria’s National Television Authority. He parleyed that into a thriving career as a TV producer, working for Nigeria International, a syndicated TV show in three continents; and Living it on South Africa’s Mnet.
Source: CNN
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Peacefmonline should respect us by eliminating craps like this from their site.
the guy shd just go away. we all know winning elections in Africa is all about rigging. forget all those n0ns3ns3 theories. on the other hand if the population is tired of a particular govt for their incompetence then it is clear there will be a change in govt. he claims his theories work then i want him to help Papa Kwesi Nduom or Nana Konadu win the elections. ple are just trying to be opportunistic. 2016 was the year of change for Ghana and that was what happened and it is nobody's doing but only God. He shd help CPP or the other parties and not NDC or NPP then and only then I will start to believe him. opportunist.
GHANAIANs were fed up with Mahama and voted him, It was not any Nigerian trickster who HELPED NANA win. Are you saying that if this 419 guy did not help Nana, Mahama would still be president? Kwassssiasem
Hmmm because is a Nigerian that's why all this insults. If it's an American no wahala. Nana has not denied his claims so whysll this insults.
i know peacefmonline is fuuuuuuuuuuuul of shittttttt. But this shittttttt is too nasty. What a load of crapppppppppppp!!!!
You helped ur moda to give birth to u. Abuuuuwaaaa alatanin Wati
This nigerian is a foooooool.peacefm online is also stuppppidd to print this foooouuulish and edddiotis article. Rubbbbbbish.
Kwasssiaaaassem
This 419 theeeef had is just trying to parasite on ghana to sell himself. And peacefm is so dumb as to believe this crappp. Peacefm mu w3 jimi paaaaa.
This is a stupppid article by a fuuuulish gullible editor in peacefmonline.