Forging Good Relationship With The Governed~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.
How a government is perceived by the governed, is crucial to the overall success of the government.
A government may on average be performing well, but in the perception of the people, a different image may be presented. Infact, the pace and direction may not be clear and obvious.
This calls for re-evaluation of communication strategy on the part of government.
Those running the affairs of a government might have their own individual distinctive, positive and unique characters, qualities and intelligence, but still not able to translate these into a cohesive, aggregate policy communications strategy to positively rub off on the overall government perception index.
The implication is that government accomplishments and milestones are not digested by the average man on the street. This is clearly a VOID.
The key to properly market government policies and programmes is to carefully and strategically allign them with actual sectoral performances.
For example, what is the policy on education, what is the policy on agriculture, health, etc. It is only after identifying policies, that you can measure and follow the milestones and accomplishments therein and then inform the governed.
The age of internet and social media, have generated frenzied public interest in the affairs of government. People on the touch of a bottom gain access to information both positive and negative. Infact junk news now travel faster than real news.
We need to remember that those who serve as links between the government and the governed must fully have knowldge of the overall agenda of government. It is this profound or total knowledge that will help them design and articulate the tone and method of impacting the results on the governed.
Social media has come to bind together people who live far and wide, people of different culture and of different levels of knowledge, understanding and comprehension.These once- remote entities are now networked, their agitation and hunger for information have become direct and substantial.
If properly approached, handled and managed, government programs and policies can be choreographed to reach the people and make positive impact on them.
Those handling government interface with the people must aggregate the overall happennings in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies in order to create linkages, sector by sector. It is irresponsible for a government to have all appointees talking at the same time and doing so at cross-purposes. Even with each trying to outshine the other.
The icon of any government is the man at the head, be it president or governor. Nothing should be unknowingly done to undermine this by appointees of government. The loyalty of the appointees is to the man at the helms. There should be non promotion of individual self at the expense of the icon. This can create confusion in the minds of the governed.
Therefore, the key to winning the people lies with, informing them about the core programs and policies of government, measure the milestones and accomplishments and report accordingly to the people. In other words, the policy, the program for implementation, the milestone covered so far, and then the benefits to be derived or gained by the governed.
There must be benefits for the governed for any program to make sense to them. Immediately the benefits are accurately communicated to the governed, they will not have any hesitation keying- into the affairs of the government and giving their own support.
Prince Eze Ugochukwu.
